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":3,"featured_media":420867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[210,83,196617,196615,196614,3461,196616,5962,6111,196613,8441,1060,3097,67,132,68,162383],"class_list":{"0":"post-420866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iran-and-china","11":"tag-iran-covid","12":"tag-iran-economy","13":"tag-iran-government","14":"tag-iran-media-iran-and-the-united-states","15":"tag-iran-news","16":"tag-iran-nuclear","17":"tag-iran-politics","18":"tag-iran-us","19":"tag-medication","20":"tag-middle-east","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-sanctions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115653366548188481","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}