February 14-2014
President Rohani engaged in a nasty tussle last Wednesday with state broadcasting, delaying an announced live TV interview for an hour and a half.
Neither side was explicit about the nature of the spat. But it appeared that state broadcasting assigned an interviewer Rohani did not want and the president insisted on having a different interviewer.
After the public was kept waiting 90 minutes, the interview was broadcast—with both interviewers.
It wasn’t explained why Rohani had not settled the issue of who would do the interviewing long before he showed up for the broadcast. Normally, in the West, a broadcaster asks to conduct an interview and issues the invitation with the name of the interviewer included. The interviewee can then reject the invitation if he or she does not trust the proposed interviewer.
What the public heard, however, had nothing to do with the interviewer. At 9 p.m., the advertised time the interview was to start, state television ran film from the 1979 revolution and scrolled a message across the bottom of the screen saying the interview was delayed by “technical problems.” As the delay continued, state television broadcast a soap opera.
Rohani, meanwhile, was sending out Twitter feeds accusing Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of state broadcasting, who is appointed by the Supreme Leader, of obstructing his “discussion with the people,” as the regime calls television interviews, by delaying the broadcast. And the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the state news agency whose chief is appointed by the president, reported, “For unknown reasons, Zarghami prevented the airing of this interview.”
But news agencies were reporting there was a spat over who would ask the questions of Rohani.
Zarghami was said to have assigned Kazem Rohani-nejad, regarded as a hardliner and supporter of former President Ahmadi-nejad, to do the job.
Rohani was said to want Sonya Puryamin, a woman viewed as more sympathetic to the Rohani camp, as the interviewer.
After a delay of more than 90 minutes, the interview began with both Puryamin and Rohani-nejad sitting across from the president and posing questions.
Many who watched the interview commented that Puryamin asked softer questions. In fact, the President even jokingly asked at one point during the interview if she was asking a question since she appeared to have answered it herself.
The next day, Zarghami reportedly sent a letter to the supervisory board that oversees state broadcasting asking it to rule on how interviewers should be selected in the future.
