In the early to mid-00’s, Voice of America’s Persian service could do no wrong. Farsi-speakers all over the world, and especially in Iran, watched everything it had to offer. From its popular nightly news program, to its political analysis, to its highly popular entertainment program, Shabahang, whatever VOA Persian had to offer had millions of viewers. After years of cheap and low-budget Los Angeles Iranian television programming, all of a sudden viewers were treated to news programs that had access to archival footage, had actual reporters, and could afford to invite experts to provide their views on political matters. Anchors for VOA’s arts and cultural programs sounded and acted a lot better than their predecessors in Los Angeles, and anchors such as the popular Luna Shad could open the doors to the home of many Iranian artists for an interview. The programs could actually videotape and broadcast segments of concerts, exhibitions, and cultural events, just like a real television network should be able to do. Voice of America’s prominent presence on the waves and signals quickly found its way into the Iranian people’s hearts where it stayed for a long time.
While it is true that today VOA Persian is competing with BBC’s Persian service which was immediately able to produce better programming upon its launch and maintain a higher professional standard than VOA Persian, other Farsi television stations have also been able to eat into VOA’s share of the pie of viewership. But what killed VOA was its poor management. Low morale among employees, highly-publicized harassment-related lawsuits against the government, biased views of some anchors, and departure of many of the network’s popular faces which comprised its most valuable assets, all contributed to the sorry state of affairs at VOA Persian by late-00’s.
With the new management and fresh efforts to revive the station, no doubt including a large budget, this is a good time to remind the network’s management that unless something concrete is done for the network’s existing problems, the present team cannot rise to the challenge of a re-born Voice of America Persian Network. The network has to learn from its past mistakes and to step into the world of modern media, where viewers have access to multiple media resources and can pick and choose what they watch carefully.
The Setareh Derakhshesh Syndrome
One of the reasons I finally stopped watching VOA’s News and Views nightly news program was that I gave up on one of the program’s leading anchors, Setareh Derakhshesh. It is not clear where this anchor learnt her journalism, but by the time she appeared on VOA’s nightly news, her fully-formed political views were openly displayed for everyone to see. She appeared as a staunch supporter of President Bush and his policies and had head-on collisions with program guests who did not subscribe to the Republican president’s policies. She was dismissive and rude to guests who did not agree with her points of view, and it seemed she was not accountable to anyone for her lack of journalistic professionalism. It simply became too painful to watch after a while.
When Derakhshesh was moved to host the news analysis program, Tafseer-e Khabar, some thought that she would actually have to modify her approach to guests in order to be able to do her job effectively. An alternately aggressive and subdued Derakhshesh, however, seemed out of her depths and unable to rise to the challenge, soon to create one of the worst episodes of Iranian television journalism, further embarrassing the network, which through Derakhshesh’s later promotion showed that not only there was no recognition of the disaster, but that the Peter Principle reigns supreme at the network.
If we were to rank the events that have unfolded in Iran since June 2009 by their social and political significance, next to the courageous presence of Iranian people on the streets and the senseless loss of life of the young Iranians that happened before our very eyes on YouTube, the most surprising and pivotal events centered around a few spontaneous slogans people chanted. Some of these slogans were so unexpected, they plunged the IRI leaders and political spectators alike into a period of stunned silence, followed by drastic reactions. One of the most significant slogans which clearly showed where Iranian people see themselves vis a vis their leaders and the portrait they have painted of the “Muslim Iran” for the past 30 years, was when on Quds Day 2009, people chanted “Na ghazeh, na lobnan, jaanam fadaye Iran,” meaning “Neither Gaza, Nor Lebanon, I give my life for Iran.” The slogan shook the very foundation of the Islamic state the Supreme Leader of which refers to himself as the “Vali-e-amr-e-moslemeen-e-jahan,” or the “Supreme Leader of all Muslims in the world.”
Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who followed the developments in Iran and paid attention to the developments, has heard of this slogan and understands its significance. Well, apparently anyone but Setareh Derakhshesh of Voice of America. On June 22, 2010, during an interview with the head of the JARAS website, Mohsen Kadivar, when he changed the slogan from “Neither Gaza, Nor Lebanon” to “Both Gaza And Lebanon” (starting at minute 5:00 of the clip), Setareh Derakhshesh did not seem to know the significance of what was happening on her program. She just sat there and let this fabrication happen. As a journalist on a medium focused on Iran, Setareh Derakhshesh demonstrated that her interest in developments in Iran is limited and that she had completely missed this important slogan and therefore its stunning significance to Iran’s current state of affairs. She also did not seem to have any studio support behind the scene to help her, to correct Kadivar, or to air the actual video clip which was no doubt available in VOA’s archives, and if not, on YouTube.
It was amusing to hear in June that Setareh Derakhshesh has been promoted to the position of Acting Executive Editor for VOA’s Persian News Network (PNN) under VOA’s new management. VOA must think highly of Ms. Derakhshesh. Many of the viewers don’t.
In my next blog I will discuss VOA Persian Service’s other challenges and opportunities.
“Na ghaze, Na Lobnan:” http://youtu.be/5iW_glPRVqY
Kadivar interviewed by Setareh Derakhshesh on June 22, 2010 (starts at 5:00): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGsd3p1gWd0&feature…
Setareh Derakhshesh promotion announced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Ifbus7KvU
