SAEDNEWS: Ham-Mihan newspaper criticized the president’s unannounced visit to IRNA, the state news agency, calling it a staged performance.
According to the political desk of Saed News, Ham-Mihan wrote:
For some time now, among senior government and state officials, a trend known as “unannounced visits” has become fashionable.
In this trend, a certain esteemed official — accompanied by an entourage of aides, bodyguards, a chief of staff, photographers, cameramen, and so on — turns up early in the morning, not to attend to their primary responsibilities (which are presumably running a ministry, a provincial governorship, a county office, a municipality, etc.), but to show up unexpectedly at subordinate offices and make their presence known.
First of all, for anyone with years of experience in the news business, the idea of the president appearing unannounced at the state news agency — especially under the current circumstances — is almost impossible to believe. If it were otherwise, it would be strange.
Secondly, if the purpose is to congratulate journalists on National Reporter’s Day, why should this happen as an unannounced visit, and why to IRNA in particular?
And finally, what kind of “unannounced” visit is it when a state television reporter is already inside the Islamic Republic News Agency building interviewing the president? What, exactly, does “unannounced visit” even mean?