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<\/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<\/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":323470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,5575,181999,181996,181994,71508,181997,181992,181995,181993,181998,490,12241,70770],"class_list":["post-323469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-iran","tag-iran-and-china","tag-iran-covid","tag-iran-economy","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-media-iran-and-the-united-states","tag-iran-news","tag-iran-nuclear","tag-iran-politics","tag-iran-us","tag-medication","tag-middle-east","tag-us-sanctions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}