CNN Discovers Iran
It is now the lead story with a double-wide graphic and explains some of the media silence:
Iranian media mostly ignored the protests and international journalists were prevented from covering the demonstrations.
Iranian authorities closed Al-Arabiya’s Tehran bureau for a week without explanation, the Arabic network said on Sunday. Two reporters were attacked outside Moussavi’s headquarters on Friday, according to Reporters Without Borders, the France-based media rights group.
The group said it had confirmed the arrest of four reporters by Iranian authorities, including one who won the organization’s press freedom prize in 2001.
Reporters for an Italian station, RAI, and for Reuters were beaten by police in the capital, Tehran, the group said, and a CNN producer was hit with a police baton.
The Web sites of pro-opposition supporters were inaccessible, and the government also had periodically shut down access to social-networking sites, making it difficult for information to reach the outside world.
“An election won by means of censorship and arrests of journalists is not democratic,” the reporters group said.
Nice start, but you have the best reporter on Iranian affairs in the western media, someone who knows all the players: where’s Christiane Amanpour, CBE? She probably wouldn’t be allowed in by the authorities, but she certainly could explain what she thinks is occurring in her parents’ birthplace.
Update: Finally, Christiane appears and she was in Iran for the election. Apparently there is a problem getting anything out as she was using Getty images in her video report.
4 comments
Well….these big news organizations (both tv and print) are dumping their big reporters right and left. One of my friends was a bigwig at Newsweek, and this happened to him, too. He is now with a major newspaper and no longer an international correspondent. CNN used to use him all the time, too – he was on TV a lot.
My guess is that they have probably booted so many reporters that they are hard up to send anyone anywhere. Or, are you sure Christine still works there?? :*
.-= ´s last blog ..Bitch, Pleez… =-.
She finally appeared, as you were typing, Moi. She is their chief foreign correspondent and responsible for most of their awards, so she’s probably going to keep her job for a while, but she is working from New York, rather than London, these days.
The media are like the tiny-tyke soccer leagues, where all the kids crowd around the ball. Once someone identifies a story, they all cluster around it.
I am glad to see she is still there…..I’ll send you my friend’s name in an email. If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.
.-= ´s last blog ..Bitch, Pleez… =-.
The Middle East is the hottest news area around, and the media have abandoned it to stringers at best. This is how you end up broadcasting propaganda.