State propaganda is playing a major role in forming and diverting public opinion for the Iranian regime. Sometimes it is used as a tool for soft discouragement and sometimes it is used to portray a fictitious powerful regime.
The regime’s financial investment in its media, with countless websites, satellite channels in several languages, newspapers, etc. shows us how serious and vital a powerful propaganda apparatus is for the regime’s existence.
Across social media, the regime has several thousand fake accounts which they use to lurk for prey and brainwash them ideologically in favor of its political interests. The spread of disinformation has so far helped to overcome many obstacles from inciting a second war between the USA and the former Iraqi government, to the countless so far failed attempts to eliminate the regime’s main opposition and the craft of fake opposition groups.
The regime’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and National Security are the ones responsible for building the structures and applying this psychological warfare and disinformation.
Too often, big social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, have been forced to clean up their platforms from the disturbing and dangerous fake accounts and robots that were advertising the regime’s goals, mainly the export and expansion of the so-called revolution.
Many countries have even been forced to confess that the regime is manipulating their media and interfering with their internal affairs.
Following the nationwide protests that started in mid-September of 2022, the regime has now decided to boost the budget of the IRIB, the regime’s broadcasting service. This increase has come up to 42 percent compared to the past year.
Also, the budget of the Broadcasting Supervisory Council, which has a total of 8 members, has increased by 61 percent to a total of $325,000 for 2023. Within just 2 years, the budget of this council has more than doubled.
It is worth mentioning that out of 8 members of this council, 6 members were chosen by high-ranking regime officials and leaders. Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili and Mohammad Hossein Safar Harandi were chosen by the regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi, Mohammad Mossadegh and Mohammad Javad Larijani were chosen by the head of the judiciary, and Seyyed Ehsan Ghazizadeh Hashemi and Bijan Nobaweh were chosen by the speaker of the parliament. The current head of this council is Mohammad Hossein Safar Harandi.
This knowledge has further provoked the people’s protests while the budget of many social institutions has been severely reduced. Despite this, it is beyond astonishing that the regime’s media is now questioning public opinion about why the people are frustrated about the increase in the budget of the Radio and Television institution.
The state-run Shargh daily claimed in a recent article that the regime’s “strong” and “popular” media is the countercharm to the plans of the enemy. Defending the budget increase, they added that if this amount of budget is not allocated to the institution, the antenna will face a serious decrease in quantity and quality of broadcasts and thus the IRIB will be unable to produce and broadcast “excellent” works.
The Shargh daily further stated that the parliament should not listen to the opponents and by approving the desired budget, it should “expand the conditions for the production of artistic and improve its works based on justice.”
This is even though the same daily claimed that there is nowhere in the world where radio and television channels broadcast advertisements do not receive funding from the government.
It is very natural for a media outlet that is only promoting the ideals and intentions of a theocratic regime to not be welcomed by the people. Those people will obviously boycott such media in the era of free communication. The only thing that is wasted here is the people’s wealth and capital in a situation where the population of those living below the poverty line is increasing rapidly.
