Iranian State Media Covers Syria
Apr 23rd, 2011 by pedestrian
… or rather, chooses not to.
“See no evil, hear no evil … speak just a little bit of evil occasionally” has been their motto for the past few weeks while the protests broke out in Syria.
Watching IRIB [Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting] all month, has been quite an amusing ride indeed. There is very little coverage of Syria at all, and when there is, they air images of Assad walking into parliament to thunderous applause (from god knows when) or groups of protesters holding his pictures up high (also from god knows when) screaming with joy. This is juxtaposed with brutal images of Qaddafi’s forces firing on protesters, protesters injured and killed in Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia and Egypt.
The news anchor also briefly attributes the “slight unrest” in Syria to the Zionists and their American allies … and then they move on to speaking about flowers, traffic or people’s sleeping habits (Iranian state news is always a mix of irrelevant information and street interviews thrown in between some more newsworthy items.)
Today, as Syrian forces opened fire on protesters, this is how the hardline media is covering the events. They’ve mostly decided to remain quiet, except for a few news outlets.
RajaNews:
Absolutely nothing on RajaNews about Syria.
FarceNews:
Same for the notoriously accurate FarceNews.
MehrNews, the most “moderate” of all state outlets:
Mehr has a very brief article on Syria at the bottom of the page, quoting a “Syrian source” who is “highly critical of Barack Obama’s claim that Iran is helping Syria in cracking down on protesters.”
IRNA:
IRNA on the other hand, has a report on Syria at the very bottom of the page which goes: “According to IRNA reporters in Syria, today protesters were holding images of Bashar Asad and the Syrian flag, crying slogans of support for Asad and asking for him to carry on the recently introduced reforms. This is while anti-government protesters had vowed to hold a huge public rally today. But they were nowhere to be seen.”
Of course, in a city bogged down by smog and pollution, it is probably next to impossible to see the dirt & dust indeed.
Hey Ped nice post as always. Assad going from Syria seems rather unlikely, but if he were to go only for their Islamist neighbours like the Gulf countries to remain unchanged I think would be a bad thing for ME. But at least the Syrian people will have made their own choice which should be the right of everyone.
Speaking of the Gulf countries have you been paying attention to the rhetoric coming out of the Arab countries on one side and the Iranian government on the other over Bahrain? It seems to be getting more confrontational as time goes by, a very worrying prospect. I wouldn’t put it past the regional governments to actually hope for war to be able to put aside their internal unrest.
I’ve been paying attention to the rhetoric indeed. I don’t watch Gulf states’ TV, but in Iran it is certainly hostile (though not dangerously so) … not yet :-S
dear Ms. Pedestrian,
The oppressive forces in Syria,and Iran may be too strong to break,but we can enjoy the comics mocking the thugs.Who but you should I ask to cruise thru You-Tube ,and add English sub-titles to Nabavi’s ” Confessions ” series. Let the UN condemn the IRI, ;the rest of us need a laugh.
btl
we sure do!