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If you are switching between channels to find reports about the Iranian riots in other cities in the country hope you are ready to get disappointed. I have been monitoring news stations since the days leading to the elections, to perhaps hear something about riots in places other than Tehran, to hear of and from supporters of incumbent Ahmadinejad; I found nothing. So why do we act surprised when the Iranian government cracks down on international media in the country as also social networking sites?
As a journalist and as someone who has family scattered all over Iran, I feel that western media has let me down. I have no issues declaring publicly that I am not a Ahmadinejad supporter, and that I would would not vote for him if I could even cast my ballot, but I would also like to clarify my reasons for supporting Mousavi. He does not have my support because of his alleged western values, as several news analysts claim he does, but because he is someone who will uphold the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is a wide difference between labeling him a pro-western candidate and calling him a reformist. He is not a confirmed democracy torch-bearer and all speculations that he is,are not backed by evidence. Their reliance on Iranians in the United States and in Iran who are Mousavi supporters is an insult to the field of journalism.
Journalists today need to be reminded that journalism requires that reports be unbiased and that all sides of an issue should be reported, a lesson that is learnt in journalism 101. How can a report that is slanted be believable? The western media has chosen to elevate their favourite candidate Mousavi on a pedestal but chose to ignore the hardliner Ahmadinejad, who in fact does have a large fan following. But, you cannot know this from watching the news and probably won’t know this at all unless you are one of his supporters. The closest report to coverage about Ahmadinejad’s influence was Christaine Amanpour’s special “From the Streets of Iran”, where she fairly claims that the president does in fact have strong support in the country.
Having said this, I am not surprised that the supreme leader Ayatullah Khamenei has blocked western news media from having access to the situation. I would too, if I were him. Networks could have had a better shot at uncontrolled access if they chose to strike a balance between interviewing and broadcasting tweets from supporters of both candidates and bringing in analysts who evaluate both candidates.
Anyone watching the coverage of post-elections and who knows very little about Iran, would perhaps believe that Tehran is the only city in the country. This is due to the lack of coverage of riots, protests or support rallies in other parts of the country. Since I haven’t been fed with that information, it wouldn’t be outrageous if I declared that Ahmadinejad has immense support in these cities, right? Kerman, Yazd, Mashad, Esfahan, and Tabriz house large populations, as does Tehran, where only about 11 percent of the population lives. So it is quite possible that Ahmadinejad won a sweeping majority in these other cities. However, news media has become a puppet of the governments that they serve and have chosen to rely on unconfirmed tips. They will not disclose that millions showed up at Ahmadinejad’s victory rally neither will they speak positively about the candidate. Most of their energy is focused on their own ethnocentric belief that Mousavi is a pro-democracy leader, but they haven’t yet understood that he isn’t much different from Ahmadinejad in terms of his foreign policy.
This is a revolution of the Iranian people,for certain freedoms, not for democracy. To comprehend this, America needs to first realize that their ways will not work for everyone. And Iranians who think that the west really cares about their plight need to realize that they are only getting the attention of the international media because they want Ahmadinejad out,so that they can begin negotiations over the nuclear weapon issue,not because they are sympathetic towards Iran’s domestic causes.
I was at first skeptical, but am now convinced that media has the power to shape and manipulate public opinion as well as political causes.
