The release of American journalist Roxana Saberi from an Iranian prison highlights an urgent question that the Tehran regime is struggling to address: How should Iran deal with the inevitability of Western media infiltration?
According to this analysis by Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh of Germany’s Die Welt, the investigative arm of Iran’s parliament [the Majlis] has just completed a 38-page study designed to help the leadership navigate the shoals of the new media world.
For Die Welt, Dr. Wahdat-Hagh writes in part:
“Persian-language broadcasters like the BBC and VOA are identified by the report as “foreign intelligence organizations.” The totalitarian regime’s experts warn that these agencies could, “open a gap between the people and the leadership and incite the intellectual class against the Islamic system, intensify the secessionist potential of ethnic groups and strengthen their ethnic identification.”
“The study emphasizes that terms like ‘velvet revolution,’ ‘color revolution,’ ‘flower revolution,’ and ‘soft subversion,’ all describe the same phenomenon of ‘peaceful movements in the management of media.’ Such media pursue the goal of ‘mobilizing public awareness.’ According to the report, this new coup attempt would legitimize itself with so-called ‘democratic programs.’ … The central objective of these revolutions was the ‘elimination of every obstacle to the great American hegemony in the world.’ China, Russia, and the Islamic world have been named as obstacles to this hegemony, which is being pursued in a ‘non-ideological Cold War.'”
So what should the regime do? The report does make a few recommendations:
“The policies of the Western media can only be combated by improving the quality of local broadcasts. The experts admit it will ultimately be impossible to suppress Internet and TV multimedia broadcasts. Therefore, only local competition can dissuade Iranian youth from looking at foreign programming. In regard to addressing the discontent of the people which has, ’emerged in the wake of Western media propaganda’, the report warns, ‘a solution must be found.’
By Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh*
Translated By Jonathan Lobsien
May 9, 2009
Germany – Die Welt – Original Article (German)
Despite repeated raids and drastic penalties, millions of people in Iran watch satellite TV and listen to the radio programs of exiles. The research arm of the Iranian Parliament [the Majlis] has completed a 38-page study that deals with foreign broadcasters like the BBC and Voice of America, which accuses them of subversion.
Experts from the research division of the Iran’s Parliament [the Majlis] put no stock in the democratic ideas of the Western media – charging them with “soft subversion.” The West wants Iran to be Georgianized, say the Iranian experts. A reminder: in April 1991, Georgia declared its independence [from Russia] and since 2004, has been tied to NATO. Georgia thereby moved closer to Europe and the West. For the Iranian regime, this is a cautionary tale.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US