WHO ARE THE MEK PART 4
InThis piece, we will
earn about how the MEK uses TV to spread their message to the Iranian people.
The majority of people across the world recognise that the
Iranian Regime is a violent, totalitarian, dictatorship with no respect for the
rights of its people or the rest of the world. However, those people wrongly
claim that the Iranian Regime has no viable alternative and that it is,
therefore, acceptable to continue doing business with them.
The thing is that the Regime has a viable alternative in the
form of the oldest, largest, and most popular resistance organization in Iran,
which has fought two separate regimes since it was founded in 1965. That is the
People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
In order to help you earn more about the MEK, we have created
an in-depth series. In this part, we will learn about how the MEK uses TV to
spread their message to the Iranian people.
While the MEK must always operate in secret for fear of
arrest, torture, and execution, the MEK has managed to keep a large public
profile in Iran for many years because of its satellite television channel,
Iran National Television (INTV). In Farsi, the channel is called Simay-e Azadi,
which translates to the Voice of Freedom.
Ever since the MEK’s INTV was founded in 1996, it has been
broadcasting around the clock to the Iranian people and expats across the rest
of the world, with the purpose of “[providing] a truthful media outlet to
foster a democratic Iran that respects the human rights of all”. This is
essential in Iran where the media and the flow of information are highly
restricted by the mullahs.
The MEK’s satellite channel is based in London, which is how
they avoid prosecution by the mullahs, but the reporters have a large network
of contacts inside Iran that gather information about what is going on in the
country, specifically things that are censured by the Regime’s media, like the
inner workings of the government and anti-regime protests.
The MEK network, which also broadcasts Iranian art, comedy,
culture, documentary, literature, history, and music, shows that are not
available to Iranians, is watched by 10 million people per day, with its
website getting tens of thousands of hits daily.
Even the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) knows
how much the MEK channel is watched in Iran, with its leader saying in 2013
that over 42% of Iranians watched satellite TV programs and they spent an
average of three hours per day watching foreign broadcasts. He said that the
MEK channel “had penetrated a majority of Iranian households”.
INTV, which is volunteer-run and commercial-free, relies a
lot on telethons for the money to run it, but the amount generated can be seen
as a measure of how popular the MEK is inside and outside Iran. In January
2013, a 50-hour INTV telethon raised $4.1 million. These contributions,
encouraged by dozens of European politicians who participated in the event, one
dollar to several thousand dollars and were received donors in Iran and 31
other countries, with many Iranians sending anti-regime and pro-MEK messages
with their donations.
Comments
Post a Comment