Saed News: The BBC Persian that the Imam used to listen to on the radio every night before sleep—where is that, and where is this feeble, weak, miserable, and degraded BBC Persian now?! I believe that an infiltrator, either an editor or a senior official, has entered this network years ago, and truly, they’ve utterly ruined the whole operation.
Where is the BBC Persian that Imam [Khomeini] used to listen to on the radio every night before sleep, and where is this degraded, weak, miserable, and feeble version of BBC Persian now?! I believe that an infiltrator — perhaps an editor or a responsible senior figure — entered this network years ago, and truly, they’ve done a thorough job of dismantling the entire operation.
If today you want to find out where a trash bin caught fire in Iran, or where a 3-magnitude earthquake occurred, or, say, what two people argued about in a government office — our recommendation for you is BBC Persian!
Years ago, when Yemen’s Ansarullah took control of the country’s affairs within a matter of days, I wrote that BBC Persian hadn’t even published half a line on the matter. Several days passed, and nothing changed! How is that even possible?! Power shifts in one of the world’s most strategically critical regions, and a news network doesn’t even write two words about it on its internal pages? Well, yes — when the Saudis want it that way, it’s possible!
I personally only check the Telegram channel of the network occasionally, which I believe reflects the true essence of BBC Persian.
Now, on Sunday, May 4th [14th of Ordibehesht in the Iranian calendar], the Yemenis fired a missile at Tel Aviv, and unlike usual — where Israel would claim the missile was intercepted — this time even Israeli networks reported the strike location and the damage, near Ben Gurion Airport. And what did BBC Persian do? Nothing! That infiltrator-editor must have instructed: “No rush — at most, we’ll mention the news in a roundabout way as part of a report on the airport reopening later!”
So, what was BBC Persian reporting from Iran on their Telegram channel at that very same time? At 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, I started checking the channel’s most recent posts — starting with the 2:00 p.m. news item and reviewing the 60 prior posts, including reports and visuals. Out of those 60, 15 were directly related to Iran, broken down as follows:
Injury of seven people in Alborz due to a storm
The prosecutor’s comment on a port accident
Four Iranians arrested by London police
Tehran Times interview with Masoud Pezeshkian
Fire near a power plant in Alborz
Dust storm in Ahvaz and Abadan
Fire at a recycling site in Alborz
4-magnitude earthquake in Alborz
Dispute between two people in a Bushehr culture office
Celebration of Tractor FC’s championship (celebration and dancing, of course; if it were just celebration, BBC might’ve ignored it)
Reduced hydroelectric power production in Iran
Air pollution in Khuzestan
Gathering at Shahid Rajaee port
Power outage during Ali Larijani’s speech
High number of social harms among Iranian women
Out of these 15, 10 are incident-related, 3 are social, two of which highlight violence and damage, and one is about celebration — but as mentioned, BBC’s focus is on the dancing. Two items are political or economic — one about reduced electricity production (which made it significant to BBC), and the other due to a football photo of Pezeshkian published by Tehran Times, which BBC used to imply the president is indifferent to the country's problems. Interestingly, Javan had originally published that photo with a positive spin, but apparently BBC caught on after reformist newspapers chose to censor it.
So if you're curious about minor earthquakes or recycling fires in Iran, why wouldn’t you check BBC Persian?! Amusingly, four of these 15 Iran-related news items (i.e., nearly 30%) were about incidents in Alborz province — many of which were quite minor. Just yesterday, the second metro line in Karaj was inaugurated, and the province had several important developments — but once that recycling center caught fire, it was as if BBC Persian couldn't contain its excitement, rushing to feature such news prominently.
I also have a personal benchmark for the collapse of BBC Persian. In the past, when Masoud Behnoud used to analyze the front pages of Iranian newspapers in his program, we’d receive 20 to 30 text messages at night from colleagues, friends, and family saying, “Turn on the TV! BBC is analyzing the Javan newspaper!” And the next day, I’d just scold them for being such loyal followers of the network. But ever since Behnoud was pushed out for using the term “assassination” instead of “martyrdom” when referring to General Qassem Soleimani — and that infiltrator slowly began to steer the network their own way — it's been years since we’ve received a single text. Peaceful sleep has returned.
I once wrote my own analysis about how the vulgarity of Iran International impacted BBC Persian — showing how fear of losing viewers drove BBC to imitate Iran International. But when those dreams didn’t come true, BBC slowly started pulling back from that mimicry. However, once you’ve tossed a strawberry into a bowl of tripe soup, there’s no point trying to fish it back out.
