Thursday, December 13, 2007

VOA Persian Lies About the Rome Conference

At last, VOA Persian could no longer ignore the Rome conference just because Fakhravar was there. Fakhravar was briefly mentioned today but in a program that started with lectures about professional journalism and the principle of balanced reporting, Ahmad Rafat, the VOA Persian correspondent in Rome lied through his teeth and sufficed to say, "The Iranian participant was Mr. Fakhravar but he only talked about himself".

Chalangi, the program presenter then repeated Rafat's statement, as if to emphasize Rafat's ridicule of Fakhravar, and said "So basically Mr. Fakhravar just talked about himself in this conference" and Rafat nodded again!

What nasty cheap liars! This is why the young generation of Iranians are sick and tired of the old generation of Iranians who got us in this mess and still won't let go. Their lies, their smear campaigns, their nepotism, their stupidity and their selfish motives still an obstacle to progress in Iran.

So much for impartial professional reporting when they now tell us they had their correspondent there but yet they did not even bother to interview Fakhravar.

Fakhravar's speech on Monday and his speech on Tuesday as well as his interview with the Italian newspaper and Italain televisions is all available and will be a testimony to VOA Persian's lies to the people of Iran.

Those of you who live in US should all let the VOA board of governors know about how VOA Persian tries to smear the reputation of an Iranian dissident, who has spent six years of his youth in Islamic jails, and how instead VOA Persian promotes Islamic Republic apologists and supporters.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unbelievable. How are they supposed to inspire Iranians by such unprofessional reporting?!

Winston said...

I wrote to Senator Tom Coburn who has been trying to correct this problem.

Anonymous said...

"وظيفه ما تنها خبر رسانی است "
يا وظيفه ما فقط دروغ گفتن و اختلاف راه انداختن است؟

Anonymous said...

عا جاي تعجب است كه اين موسسه به اصطلاح خبري با بودجه 100 مليون دلاري در كنفرانس رم خبرنگار دارد ولي قادر به تهيه يك گزارش تصويري و يا يك مصاحبه كوتاه با تنها شركت كننده ايراني در اين كنفرانس نميباشد و در عوض سعي در اختلاف پراكني در بين نيروهاي مبارز ميكند. شرم بر اين موسسه و شگردهاي غير اخلاقيش

Anonymous said...

واقعا جاي تعجب است كه اين موسسه به اصطلاح خبري با بودجه 100 مليون دلاري در كنفرانس رم خبرنگار دارد ولي قادر به تهيه يك گزارش تصويري و يا يك مصاحبه كوتاه با تنها شركت كننده ايراني در اين كنفرانس نميباشد و در عوض سعي در اختلاف پراكني در بين نيروهاي مبارز ميكند. شرم بر اين موسسه و شگردهاي غير اخلاقيش

Anonymous said...

There is nothing we can do, these VOA people have a job for life and the last thing they think about is to promote someone who is not one of the gang.

Anonymous said...

Please put the full text of his speech on your blog.

Anonymous said...

When Voice of America Persian give airtime to a pro-Islamic Republic person, they claim its because they want all opinions aired and the viewers decide for themselves,
So why did the VOA rep in Rome, Ahmad Rafat, not show a clip of Fakhravar and do an interview with him so that the viewers could decide what Fakhravar said was good or bad?

Anonymous said...

نگران برنامه چالنگي نباشيد اين برنامه از يكنواخت ترين و خسته كننده ترين برنامه ها هست و كمترين تماشاچي را دارد

Anonymous said...

First you complain VOA does not report on the Rome meeting. Then you complain they don't report what you believe they should. This proves you have no credibility and will never tolerate any other points of view. You people are what Fakhravar, like Lenin, would call "useful idiots."

Anonymous said...

I love the guy here who will write to Senator Coburn. Even he has backed away from Fakhravar and issued no new statements on VOA Persian for months. Why? Because he knows this boy is a self-promoter whose interests are only in manipulating neo-cons and idle Iranian exiles who have no real intention of "liberating" their homeland.

Azarmehr said...

Hello Roozbeh Anonymous tax payer :)

Well it was impossible for VOA to ignore Rome and if they had to report the Rome conference then they could not ignore the only Iranian dissident there, Fakhravar.

Now tell me how it is professional that Ahmad Rafat, the VOA correspondent in Rome, claims he was there but he never approached us and not only he did not do an interview with Fakhravar, he did not even say hello or ask any questions.

I will soon post Fakhravar's speech film and interviews and as always let people be the judge whether Rafat gave an accurate account and behaved in a balanced way or obeyed orders from his employers at VOA Persian to smear Fakhravar.

Azarmehr said...

Once again Roozbe Anonymous Tax Payer or Sheila Ganji, you are wrong about Winston too. Not only he has not backed away from Fakhravar but he even had this post few days ago:
http://thespiritofman.blogspot.com/2007/12/azarmehr-in-rome.html#links

You just can't read and are not thorough. You must work for VOA Persian ;)

Anonymous said...

Let me get this straight: Winston says he wrote to Coburn. One of your comment writers says Coburn has distanced himself from Fakhravar. You say this is not so because Winston (not Coburn) re-printed your report on Rome. This is absurdist logic. By the way, don't you just love the fact that since no serious news organization pays attention to anything Fakhravar does that F has to have his own personal camera crew to shoot video and then circulate it on the web. I hope the audio is better than the cruddy version of his neocon award ceremony. And is F aware that calling Perle his "sugar-daddy" doesnt really come off very well? Unless of course he means it like the term normally implies. Hmmm. Those rumors have circulated before, haven't they?

Bardia said...

با درود بر دوستان آگاه که هرآنچه گویم باعث سردردتان خواهد شد
خوشبختانه این کانال اجاره ای بی خانمان را ما در ایران با پارازیت می گیریم ولی ما باید برای کسانیکه این برنامه ها را تماشا میکنند و ناآگاهانه دچار آگاهی معکوس می شوند، چاره ای کنیم زیرا من از نزدیک برخورد مردم را با این خیمه شب بازیها می بینم. مردم فریب خورده می گویند: بابا ای ول، راست می گه، این فخرآور هم مثل اکبر گنجی فقط حرف می زنه و پز میده، اینا که میرن اونور آب خوشی میزنه زیر دلشون و ماهارو از یاد می برن. باز دم این صدای امریکا گرم که دست از سر این آخوندها بر نمی داره
ببینید اینه که «صادق زیباکلام» بحثی را پیش می کشه با عنوان «توهم توطءه» و پس از آنهم مبحثی بنام« قهرمان پروری کاذب». یعنی اینکه کاری که گنجی ها( عوامل جمهوری اسلامی) می کنند فریب و ریا نیست و امثال فخرآورها ، محمدی ها ، کاظمی ها و و و و قهرمانان پوشالی هستند
ای دوستانیکه روزگاران انقلاب را بیاد ندارید، این رژیم دست نشانده و مگس کش امریکا در خاورمیانه است پس آشکار است که بلندگوی چه کسانی باشد
پتکین جان اگر ویدیویی از سخنرانی فخرآور دارید یا در همین وبلاگتان یا در یوتیوب بگذارید تا چشم فروبندان را چشم ِدل بخشد

Anonymous said...

I'm wondering if Anonymous is referring to Winston or Senator Coburn in her comment, " Even he has backed away from Fakhravar and issued no new statements on VOA Persian for months." ?

Anyway, seems the truth about VOA's bias bothers her. Too bad, my dear.

Azarmehr said...

My apologies, I thought you meant WINSTON has distanced himself from Fakhravar.

The HE in 'Even he has backed away...' was not clear whether was meant Winston or Coburn. Unlike you who seem to have a lot of time on your hand, I am in middle of work. It does however confirm my suspicion that you work for VOA and follow VOA critics closely.

But in any case I hope you are alright with the reason for my misunderstanding. Sorry again.

As for the camera crew, in fact neither me nor Fakhravar took even a picture camera with us. However the whole conference was filmed by Radio Radical, several Italian TV stations including RAI, and as I mentioned in my original post about the conference,the paper Corriere della Sera printed a full interview with Fakhravar on p12 on its 10th Dec issue, Monday.Oh plus volunteers from Magna Carta foundation. We just need to extract his speech from the mass of film footage when we have time.

As for the neocon bollocks etc. Look we use any platform given to us to be a voice for those who are struggling for democracy in Iran, Left or Right, we don't care.

FYI, I have spoken at Left wing student conferences like UK based Campaign for Free Education, which then nominated successfully Ahmad Batebi as the honorary vice-president of the NUS and have appeared on not pro-neocon CNN as well:
http://www.zippyvideos.com/130046864900445.html

I appeared on VOA as well but the silly presenter thought the cultural revolution took place a couple of years ago :)))

and my posts have appeared in one of the most popular Left wing blogs in UK, Harry's place, see:

http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2006/03/01/when_the_stoppers_met_the_iranians.php

Here is another one today:
http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2007&m=12&d=14&a=2

any more baseless accusations?

Shame the VOA correspondent didnt even have a tape recorder with him though, some reporter!! :))

Anonymous said...

Look, you seem like a reasonable fellow now. Before it is too late, drop your link with Fakhravar. When he is finally exposed, he will take you and the others down with him. It is not too late for you to repent. Be an independent thinker, not a follower. You are being used -- and admit it, you can't be certain you are not being misused by forces inside Iran whom we all agree are evil.

Azarmehr said...

I wish you would at least use a pseudoname so I don't confuse one anonymous with another.

Look, I stand up alongside anyone who is doing good for the pro-democracy movement in Iran until they remain loyal to the cause, and I will speak up for anyone who I think is being treated unfairly. What VOA Persian did yesterday in Jamshid Chalangi's program was WRONG, VERY WRONG! and is typical of our Persian speaking media who do their best to divide us.

Also let me tell you another thing, I have had links with Fakhravar since year 2000, and I also played a pivotal role in making the documentary Iran undercover which was shown on channel 4 and introduced Fakhravar to the world, so may be I have used Fakhravar not the other way round.

It would be moraly wrong of me not to stand by a friend when an unfair smear campaign is going on against him.

I have heard so much nonsense about Fakhravar that I am sick of it. I have even heard people claim he was never a medical student, well let me tell you every time I have referred to him about a medical question, he has been spot on including my recent tendon operation.

I have even brought his accuser who claimed Fakhravar was not a medical student face to face with Fakhravar, only to see his accuser melt into the ground in embarassment.

You lot seem to think a dissident is only valuable when he/she is in prison and when he/she is released, if he/she does not speak the way you want him/her, you want to dump them and accuse them of all sorts of things. Why???

Azarmehr said...

برديا گرامي لطفا به اين لينك مراجعه كن:
http://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/242222/fighting-for-democracy-in-the-islamic-world

در اولين فرصت متن اصلي بدون برگردان ايتاليايي را ارايه ميدهم ولي به دوستان خود در ايران بگو بپرسند كه چرا خبرنگار تلويزيون صداي امريكا در رم نه فيلمي تهيه كرد و نه مصاحبه اي و نه حتي سلامي كه مردم خود قضاوت كنند فخراور درد مردم را گفت يا تعريف خودش را كرد. كاش مردم ما بيشتر پرسش ميكردند و هر چيزي كه بخوردشان ميدادند را بسادگي نميپذرفتند!