Iranian media and the Syrian ‘conflict’

“Never cross the official red line.” This is the the unwritten principle regulating Iranian media inside Iran in anything related to the country’s foreign policy. And Iran’s role in Syria (and in Lebanon) is certainly one of the most sensitive of these red lines. For how else can one explain this rather strange lack of coverage in Iranian media of what is actually happening in Syria? The few, occasional news reports that one may come across from time to time are often biased and distorted ‘news’ justifying whatever the Syrian regime happens to be doing, rather than reporting or exposing the truth of what Syrian people are living through.

Both media outlets close to the centres of power and more independent ones in Iran insist on portraying what is happening in Syria as a “civil war” between fanatic jihadis, whether local or foreign, and the rest of the population represented by the ‘legitimate’ ruling regime. Both have also been completely silent about the role of Iran in Syria.

Meanwhile, more official media outlets, such as Iranian Broadcasting (IRIB), are busy justifying the Syrian regime’s crimes to the extent that they have become mouthpieces reiterating the Syrian regime’s propaganda, and not media outlets in another country with their own editorial policy.

This should come as no surprise if one remembers that the Iranian Supreme National Security Council has traditionally implemented a strict policy for news coverage of such ‘sensitive’ matters, through imposing guidelines on all newspapers and news agencies.[1] Thus, every piece of news that is broadcast by the National Iranian Radio and Television organisation is first filtered through the Council’s news department, which is itself heavily monitored by security services.

In you follow these official media, the main impression you get – sometimes the only one – is that the Syrian regime is a cornerstone in the “axis of resistance” that is fighting against a big, regional conspiracy involving Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and, of course, the US and Israel. Never mind all the conflicts of interests between these actors and the fact that both Israel and the US actually want the Syrian regime to stay in power, despite the rhetoric, because they cannot find a ‘better’ alternative (as far as their own interests are concerned).

In the past few months, as fundamentalist Islamist groups fighting in Syria gained more power at the expense of more moderate or secular forces, Iranian conservative media have started portraying the conflict as a “sectarian war”, not just a “civil war”. And this has, incidentally, been the line, or lie, reiterated by the Syrian regime from the beginning, even before so many jihadists came onto the scene.

Finally, it is worth noting that the few Iranian news agencies that do cover (some of) the events in Syria more than others are those closely affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards and the security agencies in Iran. These include Bultan New and Fars News, to mention but a couple.

NOTES:
[1] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AMjCy4AYp3HAJ%3Awww.roozonline.com%2Fpersian%2Fnews%2Fnewsitem%2Farticle%2F-b0ff76edac.html+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=de

Other related links:
http://www.radiofarda.com/content/f3_censorship_Iran/2214316.html
http://www.rsf-persan.org/article17337.html
http://www.persian.rfi.fr/سانسور-اخبار-پرونده-هسته‌ای-در-ایران-20131220/ایران

 

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