PressEthic

In the past week, I, like many of you, have been following the developing situation at the Miami Herald. I have noticed that the Office of Cuba Broadcasting is often described with the ugly little word "propaganda". This got me thinking about the other projects of the International Broadcasting Bureau (or I.B.B., the parent government agency of all U.S. foreign-broadcast media organizations) and their relative merits, or lack thereof. My question is, put simply: Can propaganda be used for good?

Of the many I.B.B.-sponsored media organizations around the world, one of the most relevant would seem to be Radio Farda - the Farsi-language news network currently beaming it signals into Iran from the Czech Republic. Radio Farda is a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and could easily be described as U.S. propaganda.

Why would the I.B.B., or the U.S. government, even want to push propaganda on the people of Iran? Why not leave them alone? The answer may be that leaving them alone means abandoning them to the singular influence of a virulent anti-Western totalitarian ideology.

This month, The Iranian government has extended its efforts to control its domestic media. Authorities of the Islamic Republic closed down Sharq (meaning Orient), which has been described as Iran's most influential and popular newspaper, as well as three other independent newspapers.

A spokesman for the Iranian Professional Journalists Association, Mr. Masha’allah Shamsolva’ezin recently said:

We are in a vicious circle, for, as a result of these pressures, closures and crackdowns, more Iranian intellectuals, journalists, scholars and others take refuge with outside-based media to express themselves and are immediately accused of collaboration with foreign media and arrested.

These days, there is less and less room for diversity of opinion in the Iranian media.

Offical state news agencies like the Islamic Republic News Agency publish nothing but sycophantic praise of the government and bitter attacks on its enemies, primarily the U.S.

Although the news coverage beaming into Iran from Radio Farda is most assuredly pro-Western in its slant, is it not perhaps providing a valuable service to ordinary Iranians? Is it not a benefit to them to be able to choose what they believe out of diverse variety of opinions and information? Is it even our place to provide them with this choice?