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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty began its Farsi-languagebroadcasts to Iran on October 31, and already has become a championof Iranian president Hojjat-ol eslam Mohammad Khatami.
The radio sends out a bi-weekly fax report in English, IranReport, reflecting its Farsi-language broadcasts. The second issue,dated November 23, contains several items indicating a strongpro-Khatami bias, as well as the radio's "soft-line" toward theTehran regime.
In one article, noting the formation of a new, pro-Khatami party,the radio commented that this was "certainly a sign of politicaldevelopment and maturity," that would lead to "political institutionsreflecting Iran's multi-hued spectrum of political, social, andreligious opinion." The article made no comment on the spate ofnewspaper closures, arrests of journalists, or the public assaults onpro-Western members of Khatami's cabinet and on opponents of secularrule that have become widespread under Khatami's rule.
A separate article on the death edict against British writerSalman Rushdie was even more astonishing. In a back and forthdiscussion of the Rushdie fatwa, quoting a debate in rival Tehrannewspapers as to whether Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa was hand-writtenor typed, signed or sealed, the radio concluded matter-of-factly: "Asthese accounts demonstrate, the Rushdie issue is still very sensitivefor Iranians... But for many devout Iranian Muslims, the issue is notone of politics, it is one of faith. According to differentnewspapers, in the town of Bahar, a father offered his vineyard asadditional bounty [to Rushdie's future killers]; residents ofKiyapay village offered land, dwellings, and carpets as additionalbounty; and students in a Qom seminary offered a month's allowance asadditional reward."
Our opinion: While that factual account is significant anddeserves to be reported, it is astonishing that in a U.S-governmentsponsored radio, aimed at bringing a different voice to Iraniansliving inside Iran, there was not a single mention of theinternational reaction to the Rushdie fatwa, which has beenuniversally condemned and which cost Iran many years of diplomaticisolation from its best allies in Western Europe. Instead, theradio's account gives the impression that the Rushdie fatwa is a"matter of faith" and therefore something acceptable, to be honored,and at the very least understood. This is precisely the message theIranian government has tried repeatedly and without success to sendto the West. It should not be the message the West sends back toIran.