Reporting Iran: Getting around restrictions
Foreign journalists in Iran have always been restricted, but never as much as in the wake of the disputed elections in June.
Iranian authorities restricted all foreign media from first-hand reporting on the streets, and confined them to their desks and hotel rooms where they conducted telephone interviews and monitored official state television.
Journalists from the 91ȱ and other international media organisations were banned from attending or reporting on any ‘unauthorised’ demonstration.
Press cards were declared invalid, and officials refused to extend the visas of correspondents allowed into Iran to cover the elections.
The new rules applied to all journalists, including Iranians working for foreign media, have been described as among the toughest ever imposed. “
It has become steadily more difficult to report from Iran,” Jon Leyne, the 91ȱ’s Tehran correspondent said. “The evidence of that is in the fact that even before the election there were very few foreign correspondents left in Tehran.”
Iran’s leadership has grown increasingly suspicious of the 91ȱ since the launch of 91ȱ Persian Television in January, said Jon, who has spent two years covering Iran.
He was expelled from the country in the week that it imposed severe restrictions on foreign journalists covering the opposition’s daily protests against the election result.
That same week, broadcasts by international news organisations, including the 91ȱ’s, were jammed and their websites blocked.
“Opponents of the government mostly welcome us [the 91ȱ], even though they suspect we have an agenda in line with the British Government,” Jon said. “Iran is not the most dangerous, nor the most restricted, place in the world. But it is very difficult because the 91ȱ is watched so very closely. Everything we say and do is minutely scrutinised. Access is very difficult, and people are scared to speak to us, both supporters and opponents of the government.”
Fighting the censorship
But while restrictions prevented reporters from covering unauthorised gatherings in the streets, there were no controls over what they could say.
In spite of facing difficulties, 91ȱ correspondents were able to continue file stories regularly. And where the 91ȱ couldn’t report first-hand, social media – including Twitter and blogging – appeared to bridge the gap. This was one of the few ways for people in Iran, particularly young people, to communicate with the West.
But even before severe restrictions were imposed, foreign press faced difficulties in travelling to and working in Iran.
Earlier this year, Iranian authorities refused 91ȱ Persian Television permission to base a Persian speaking correspondent in the country. As it stands the Persian language service is not allowed to have any staff in the country.
But journalists still push against boundaries of what Iran permits to tell what is happening there.
“Foreign and Iranian journalists have to follow the rules,” Lyse Doucet, presenter and correspondent for 91ȱ World Service and 91ȱ World News said. “The problem in Iran is that sometimes the rules are deliberately vague – there are a lot of grey areas in the midst of black and white. So, like Iranians, you are always probing and, at times, pushing at the limits.”
With restrictions on reporting, the pressure of retaining impartiality and authenticity were far greater.
Different viewpoints
Suzanne Mooney, a producer for The World Tonight, described the country pre and post-election as “two different places”. “Iran is a very duplicitous country.” Suzanne said. “People act differently at home and in the outside world. It’s hard to know whether you’re getting the true picture. People are scared to speak out as they feel they have to behave in a certain way, and there is a certain amount of fear. You have to do as much as you can to validate their accounts, including speaking to analysts.”
Today the 91ȱ continues to have a bureau in Tehran and employs two local producers, but there is still no permanent correspondent reporting from Iran.
Jon Leyne, who continues to cover Iran from London, said: “The Iranian authorities have said they will give visas to new correspondents, and a new Tehran bureau chief, in due course, but so far none has been forthcoming.”