The planned feature, Re-Birth, casts actress Atefeh Habibi as Sahar Emami\u2014presented by state media as a symbol of defiance during Iran\u2019s 12-day war with Israel in June.<\/p>\n
Emami was on air when IRIB\u2019s Glass Building in Tehran was bombed on June 16. She rushed out of the studio but returned to present from another set within minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201c(She) bravely continued her program after the attack,\u201d the film\u2019s promoter asserted Thursday, branding her a hero.<\/p>\n
But many remain unconvinced, accusing the broadcaster of glossing over \u201creal heroes\u201d and victims of the war.<\/p>\n
‘Propaganda\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMaking a film about Sahar Emami is not a cultural choice. It is a propaganda project,\u201d a commentary in the moderate outlet Rouydad24 argued.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is it that makes her stand out from all others?\u201d it asked, offering a characteristically factional answer: \u201cIt is easy propaganda that conveys their ideological perspective,\u201d referring to IRIB\u2019s leadership and its ties to the ultrahardline Paydari Front.<\/p>\n The commentary also criticised the lack of scrutiny of the broadcaster itself.<\/p>\n In the days after the attack, state TV filled its programming with tributes to Emami, sponsored billboards across Tehran, and received praise from senior officials\u2014including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei\u2014for her \u201cbravery.\u201d<\/p>\n Critics said the network was exploiting the incident to deflect attention from its declining viewership.<\/p>\n Dwindling popularity<\/strong><\/p>\n IRIB holds a legal monopoly over broadcasting in Iran; private television networks are not permitted.<\/p>\n In recent years, however, a proliferation of digital platforms\u2014often backed by different branches of the state or powerful institutions\u2014has begun to challenge that dominance in entertainment.<\/p>\n In news, IRIB\u2019s audience has been shrinking for years, with Persian-language broadcasters in exile becoming the main source of information for most people inside Iran.<\/p>\n An official survey in late 2024 put IRIB\u2019s popularity at just 12.5%, while the head of its internal polling unit claimed it was closer to 72%, adding the figure \u201ccould have been higher if, like elsewhere in the world, Generation Z had not turned away from national television.\u201d<\/p>\n A survey by the Netherlands-based polling institute GAMAAN also found that only a small minority of Iranians tuned in to IRIB during and after the June war with Israel.<\/p>\n The broadcaster\u2019s chief has since requested additional funding to rebuild the damaged headquarters, saying rubble will be cleared by January with reconstruction to follow.<\/p>\n Critics note that IRIB\u2019s current budget of 350 trillion rials (more than $300 million) exceeds that of ten ministries combined. <\/p>\n The broadcaster also receives ad-hoc allocations in US dollars from the national reserve alongside lucrative advertising revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The planned feature, Re-Birth, casts actress Atefeh Habibi as Sahar Emami\u2014presented by state media as a symbol of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[18,135,19,18929,115882,115879,115876,115877,115880,115874,115878,115875,115881,17,462,8820,24574],"class_list":{"0":"post-212309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-iran-and-china","13":"tag-iran-covid","14":"tag-iran-economy","15":"tag-iran-government","16":"tag-iran-media-iran-and-the-united-states","17":"tag-iran-news","18":"tag-iran-nuclear","19":"tag-iran-politics","20":"tag-iran-us","21":"tag-ireland","22":"tag-medication","23":"tag-middle-east","24":"tag-us-sanctions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115652937906314503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}