Posted on 12/16/2002 4:16:47 AM PST by Steve Schulin
Iran seethes with protests over a death sentence given to a professor for disagreeing with the government about who is allowed to interpret the Koran. Iranians are now questioning the decisions of their religious, political and judicial leaders. The sentence has been appealed, making the coming weeks crucial to Iran's internal debate over freedom. There has never been a greater opportunity for U.S. public diplomacy to assure Iranians of our solidarity and to tell the story of liberty and limited government.
Unfortunately, we won't be able to, because the most successful U.S. broadcasts into Iran have been shut down. And it wasn't the mullahs who shut down these broadcasts. We did.
Until Dec. 1, Radio Azadi (Persian for freedom) delivered 11 daily hours of news and discussion of social and political issues. Beginning in 1998, it earned the trust of Iranian students and dissidents. During the 1999 student protests, Azadi broadcast a call from the wife of a dissident at the very moment the regime's goons where beating down the door of her apartment.
In November, as students took to the streets to protest the professor's death sentence, Azadi broadcast roundtable discussions between student leaders, other dissidents and the exile community, providing one of the only means of communication between democratic forces inside and outside the country. Its death prompted this protest from a listener: "At a time when the need for democratic forces and two-way communication with the outside world has increased and become ever more critical for the very survival of those forces, the most effective means of achieving that end has been discarded."
The role earned by Azadi -- as facilitator of conversations between exiled Iranians and democratic forces inside Iran -- was what Congress had in mind in 1996 and 1998 when funds were set aside for broadcasting into Iran. Congress based that legislation on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcast messages of hope into Eastern Europe during the Cold War. It's a major understatement to say that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty played a crucial role in rolling back communism.
Adding insult to injury, Azadi was replaced yesterday by a new format that specifically excludes any description of U.S. foreign policy and any discussions with dissidents, either inside or outside Iran. Instead, the U.S. taxpayer will finance the broadcasting of "Top 40" American and local pop tunes delivered with a spoonful of headline news content. This format, which hasn't been approved by Congress, is the creation of a bureaucracy called the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which, until recently, was controlled by Clinton appointees. This ill-advised format is based on the hope of boosting listenership through pop music. No doubt, some will listen to this network, but to what end?
It's difficult to believe that the Bush administration has agreed to support this shift from a proven program of serious policy discussion to a teeny-bopper music-based format. Nevertheless, Radio Farda was unveiled yesterday. It likely will insult the cultural sensitivities of Iranians, as well as their intelligence.
Meanwhile, the brave professor sits in a jail cell awaiting execution, students plot protests, and the regime struggles to hold the line against the will of the people. And the U.S. will be spinning Britney Spears discs?
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Mr. Helms is a Republican senator for North Carolina
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