Slashdot Mirror
The Satellite Subversives
SomeoneYouDontKnow writes: "The New York Times (free registration reguired, blah blah blah) has a fascinating article about a former Iranian rock star who has launched a pirate TV station broadcasting back into Iran from, of all places, L.A. From reading the article, I can't help but compare Narional Iranian Television to U-62 from the movie "UHF" because of its ultra-low-budget operations and programming, but, like the fictional station, it's wildly popular. OK, I know this is a little off the beaten track for Slashdot articles, but it's nice to see that there's a broadcaster out there more interested in providing a meaningful service than figuring out ways to squeeze more and more money out of viewers."
The biggest export of the US as far as impact, is entertainment. Here, they have an audience hungry for content, and a station that would be happy to take support and attack a regime they clearly have a problem with.
One cruise missile could fund this station for a year, and would do more to improving relations with the people of the goverment. Why sacrifice our people fighting a useless war with them? Or attacking their government when their own people clearly dislike it.
I guess it doesn't play as well in the polls for the politicians to say "We fund pirate TV stations" as it is to say "We decided to go in and blow sh*t up!". Let's face it, the current administration has all but declared they want to go in and wage war.
ChuckyG
This reminds me the early days of private Tv channels in Turkey. Till 1988 private TV channels were not allowed and we had to watch the nice but limited government channels. One day the son of the president of the government started a company in Europe and they broadcasted to Turkey via satellite. And after that day Turkey had a very fast transition from communism style tv broadcasting to almost US style tv broadcasting. This great change almost influenced everything in the country including music industry and news and freedom of speech. Fortunately the parliment in Turkey listened to the communities to legalize the private TV channels but I am not sure if this would be the case for Iranians since they are already banning Turkish channels broadcasting over Iran.
- count on
"News that matters to me... so what do the other channels report, news that matters to people in Ohio?
It's a beautiful city, if a bit polluted (I had a lung infection while I was there, so I spent a lot of time coughing), and everyone I met was extremely friendly and warm hearted. Filled with courage, and optimistic that change would come soon, that they will have more liberties soon and it will be by the will of their own people.
Support for the regime has declined to about 10%, and over 50% of the population is under the age of 25. In my mind, that makes for an ideal environment for change. Things will change, and I think the best thing is for foreign interests to stay out of the way. Offer advice, offer knowledge without hidden motives. If the US attacks this country, or further manipulates the situation for their economic benifit, I hope that somewhere, someone will speak against such inhumane and criminal acts.
The US government has already gone too far with Afghanistan, and I hope that we, the people of the world wake up and hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity.
Who "they" are should also be thought about carefully. Are the American people responsible for the acts of their governments? I certainly wouldn't hold the Afghans, or Iranians to that standard; but what's the case in a democracy?
You can't attack a government without hurting the people it governs. You also can't use the same thought constructs from one country to justify the attacks against another. The Afghans are not in control of their government. It doesn't represent them. It's supported by atomatons, not the belief of the people.
In theory the US government is a representation of the belief of it's people. It would be wrong to use that though construct to justify an attack against Afghanistan. So if the US government truly does represent the people, please stop blowing up innocents in what is already a war-torn region of the world in an attempt to thwart the government that oppress them. Think of some other way. There are over 250 million of you, and over 6 billion of us in the rest of the world, what could we do differently?
This TV station seems like a good idea. They're broadcating their ideals into Iran, and the people there have the option to acknowledge them. What else can we do to disceminate other views and ideals in a manner that does not trample over their right to choose on their own?
I don't really have any ideas yet, so maybe you can help me get started...
The first things that comes to mind is that many people there are poorly educated, so that they're easily manipulated and taken advantage of. So, if we could translate educational material into Farsi so that the people there who can read could help disceminate knowledge.
What knowledge do you think is essential to help stop people from taking advantage of you?
www.indymedia.org for non /. independent media.
Having visited Iran 18 months ago I can say that the locals will be very pleased. When we where there many people had rock videos made in the US and Europe. These were not simply western video but were made by Iranian bands living in exile. They sang in farsi. When I asked where people got these video from (as they where illegal) it seemed that usually they where copied from a friend. This meant that they where normally very poor quality, as they where analog video->video copies, that may have been through several people. The video you watched could easily have been a 4th generation copy.
The bands apparently put up there own money to make the video and record them, intendeing the result to be smuggled into iran. It made me think things like freenet really where valuble.
People need access to their own culture. They didn't want to see Britney spears, or read US paper (which are extremely biased anyway). They simply wanted a medium to communicate freely about things you and I take for granted.
I remember one teacher we meet proudly showing me a history book of the Shar (written the 1960s). This book contained very little "subversive" information and the teacher thought the Shar was a bad man anyway. However it was one of his most prized possetions because he loved history, and all history books regarding the Shar where illegal.
When you read stories like this remember that free speach is something beyond mp3 and warez trading. Projects like freenet are important to large parts of the world for access to information we take for granted. Given the clamp down on "Terrosism", free speach may even become an issue in the western world.
(my iranian pictures are at www.butler.co.nz)
Elivs