The president's chief media guru is behind bars and Ahmadinejad is barred from visiting him, so what is afoot in Iran?
When a president's chief media guru is locked behind bars - and the president is barred from visiting him - something must be afoot. Ali Akbar Javanfekr is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top media strategist and the head of the IRNA, a news agency loyal to him. He was jailed recently after criticising the policies of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Last week, Ahmadinejad tried to visit Javanfekr in prison but was stopped in his tracks by the courts. It may not have got much coverage outside Iran - but it was big news there because his imprisonment and the legal case against him speaks volumes about the power struggle taking place behind the scenes in Iranian politics.
Our contributors this week speak from different positions in this highly politicised media story: Mohammed Marandi, a professor of politics at Tehran University; Pooneh Ghoddoosi, a presenter at BBC Persian in London; Ali Alfoneh, the founder of Iran Tracker at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC; and Ali Asghar Ramezanpoor, the director at the newly launched Iranian TV outlet Raha in London.
No comments:
Post a Comment