Iranian ire after BBC launches Farsi TV

A presenter of new Persian language television channel, BBC Persian.

In the tumultuous prelude to Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini was convinced that the BBC was supporting the US-backed shah. The monarch, in turn, had little doubt that the BBC was helping London to destabilise his regime by broadcasting everything Khomeini said from exile in France. Neutral observers might regard these mutually exclusive suspicions as evidence of the dispassionate and balanced professionalism for which the BBC is renowned. Three decades on and many Iranians still see Britain as "perfidious Albion", a scheming "little Satan" that pulls the strings of the "Great Satan", the United States, which is viewed as a superpower with more brawn but fewer brains than its "duplicitous" Anglo-Saxon ally. Today, the BBC is valued by many ordinary Iranians as a trusted source of impartial news. Most Iranian officials, however, still view the corporation as a cap-doffing servant of the foreign ministry. "It's very hard to explain to Iranians that, although the BBC is partly funded by the UK government, it is editorially independent and sometimes its policy of independent broadcasting clashes with official UK policy," said Jim Muir, the BBC's staff correspondent in Tehran between 1999 and 2004. Little wonder then that yesterday's launch by the BBC of a Farsi TV channel, at a cost of US$22 million (Dh81m), ruffled the Iranian regime's feathers. The station is a "security threat" to Iran, thundered Gholam Hossein Ejehi, Iran's intelligence minister, hours before BBC Persian TV was set to make its first broadcast. Without elaborating, Mr Ejehi insisted Tehran would take "necessary measures" to deal with the channel, which the BBC says will be seen by Farsi-speakers in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and around the globe. Iran's official news agency accused the BBC of trying to recruit Iranians "for espionage and psychological warfare" - a charge the corporation robustly rejected. A commentary on the conservative Mehr news agency branded the BBC the "rumour-spreading corporation of Britain" and argued it had timed its Farsi station's launch very astutely. Western "digital media" had failed to affect Iranian public opinion on key issues such as Iran's nuclear challenge, the commentary said. Spawning BBC Persian TV "could be part of the effort to manage Iran's public opinion in possible future challenges between Iran and the West". If anyone doubts the timing is significant, just look at when the BBC launched its Farsi radio service, Mehr argued: it was in Dec 1940, when the Nazis had energy-rich Iran in their sights and Britain needed to counter German radio broadcasts in Iran. Mehr said the BBC now was also stepping in craftily at a time when Iranian viewers were heartily sick of mostly anti-regime Farsi-language television channels beamed in from Los Angeles, which is home to a large Iranian expatriate community. The "obscene language" and political radicalism of such stations had alienated viewers, Mehr said. Britons, bemused by the deeply held Iranian suspicion of their country, usually have no idea of its historical roots. Britain in 1953 joined with the United States in a coup that overthrew Iran's elected prime minister, the charismatic Mohammed Mossadegh, and installed the unpopular shah. Mossadegh's main sin in London's eyes was to have nationalised the British-owned Anglo-Iranian oil company. This is ancient history to most Britons who know of the coup, but not to Iranians, few of whom accept Britain is no longer a great power with global reach. Such flattering perceptions, however, are little consolation to British diplomats hunkered down in their two fortified missions in Tehran, which recently have been a focus for angry demonstrations against Israel's onslaught against Gaza. BBC Persian TV insists it is not going to be a hostile channel; that it will showcase the best of Iran. It "has the audience's needs at the heart of its agenda. It is contemporary in its style, and independent and penetrating in its journalism," said Behrouz Afagh, head of BBC World Service's Asia and Pacific region. By focusing on Iran's vibrant cinema and art scene as well as news and current affairs, BBC Persian TV clearly hopes that suspicion in Iranian officialdom will eventually melt away. The channel has recruited 150 staff, including 100 journalists, among them glamorous female presenters who decline to sport headscarves that are mandatory in Iran. None will face any first-hand opprobrium in Iran - because the Iranian authorities have refused to allow the "suspicious and illegal" channel to open a bureau there. It is represented in Tehran by one sole British staff correspondent who provides English-language reports to BBC News. In contrast, Press TV, Iran's 24-hour English news channel, employs about 50 people in a London bureau. Most of BBC Persian TV's staff will be based in London, although it will also have its own correspondents in such key locations as Washington, Jerusalem, Beirut, Kabul and Islamabad. The channel will be beamed into Iran by two satellites for eight hours every evening and will be available free to the millions of Iranians who have illegal but generally tolerated satellite dishes hidden behind makeshift screens on their apartment balconies or rooftops. The station will also be available online. Without reporters in Iran, live pictures from inside the country will be a problem for BBC Persian TV. This will be addressed in part by ordinary Iranians - who are already among the world's most dedicated bloggers - uploading material they have filmed. Phone-ins will also help the station interact with its audience. BBC Persian TV insists it is looking for footage that provides a window on ordinary life in Iran and will not solicit scenes of demonstrations or heavy-handed police action. Viewers will be advised to submit only material they deem safe: Iranian officials have warned citizens not to get involved in the "lie-spreading" channel. BBC journalists previously posted to Iran had found the job challenging but rewarding. Mr Muir said: "When I reopened a bureau for the BBC in Tehran in 1999, we were welcomed back, and I was often surprised by how much we were able to do, as long as we had the right permissions in our hand." [e-mail]