State broadcasting has routinely telecast all the president’s major speeches live and in full.
But nothing was carried live of his speech delivered last week in Khalkhal, Ardebil province. The reformist daily Etemad said the daily newscasts also downplayed the speech and did not lead with it, as was the norm in the past.
The president’s office publicly complained about the assumed change in policy, with one of the president’s aides giving an interview to the state news agency in which he denounced the state broadcaster.
The decision not to broadcast the speech appears to have been a last minute decision. Etemad said state television had sent 12 of its news and camera staff to Khalkhal with the president with the mission of overseeing live coverage of the president’s trip.
That opened the possibility that something other than a policy shift prompted the failure to broadcast the speech. But, thus far, state broadcasting has had nothing to say about the absence of the live broadcast.