BEN- GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF MIDDLE EAST SCIENCES

Portrayals of Neda Agha-Soltan's Death: State-Funded English-Language News Networks and

the Post-2009 Iranian Election Unrest

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

NEAL UNGERLEIDER

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DR. HAGGAI RAM

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DR. TAL SAMUEL-AZRAN

SEPTEMBER 2010

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BEN- GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF MIDDLE EASTERN SCIENCES

Portrayals of Neda Agha-Soltan's Death: State-Funded English-Language News Networks

and the Post-2009 Iranian Election Unrest

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

NEAL UNGERLEIDER

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DR. HAGGAI RAM

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DR. TAL SAMUEL-AZRAN

Signature of student: ________________ Date: _________

Signature of supervisor: ________________ Date: _________

Signature of supervisor: ________________ Date: _________

Signature of chairperson

of the committee for graduate studies: ________________ Date: _________

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Abstract:

This thesis examines international media coverage of Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old Iranian woman

who died of a gunshot wound in Tehran during the 2009 post-election demonstrations. Agha-Soltan's death was

captured by at least two camerapersons. The resulting footage appeared on television news worldwide, with

Agha-Soltan's death becoming one of the most readily identifiable images of the demonstrations in Iran.

International media in Iran relied strongly on user-generated content created by bystanders in Tehran. For

international news organizations who found their employees expelled from Iran, use of bystander-generated

footage became a convenient method of reporting on a major world event. The easy availability of camera-

equipped mobile phones among Tehran's middle- and upper- classes meant a surplus of video footage of

oftentimes violent demonstrations and rallies.

Specific news coverage taken is from three organizations: The BBC, Al Jazeera English and RT (Russia

Today), an English-language international news channel funded by the Russian government. This thesis focuses

on internet news coverage by all three networks of both Agha-Soltan in particular and of Iran in general. This

includes text, video and audio material offered on their websites, as well as television footage that was also

broadcast on YouTube. The time frame for coverage analyzed in the thesis extends from June 20, 2009 (the date

of Agha-Soltan's death) to December 31, 2009. This time period is further divided into three separate sub-

periods: June 20, 2009 – June 22, 2009 (early coverage of Agha-Soltan's death), June 23 – September 22, 2009

(extended coverage, after-events and analysis during the sixth months following Agha-Soltan's death) and

September 23 – December 31, 2009 (miscellaneous 2009 news and year-end retrospectives).

This thesis begins with a description of Agha-Soltan's death on June 20, 2009 as reconstructed from the

two videos (“Video A” and “Video B”) that were made of her final moments. Although multiple camerapersons

are visible in the videos, these are the only two videos to have shown up on the internet as of date. The

description of Agha-Soltan's death is supplemented by background information reconstructed from three other

user-generated videos that appear to show her in Tehran the same day. In both the death videos and the three

Tehran videos, Agha-Soltan appears accompanied by her music teacher Hamid Panahi.

The introduction continues with an explanation of the unique confluence of factors that led to the

profusion of video from June 2009 Tehran: easy availability of camera-equipped mobile phones, the use of social

networking services such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and the relationship between Iranians and the

Iranian diaspora. This thesis attempts to create a timeline of the dissemination of the two Agha-Soltan videos; an

explanation is given of the complicating factor of deletion of early Agha-Soltan videos (and, in fact, of much

violent footage from June 2009 Iran) by YouTube, which maintained an ambivalently worded anti-violence

policy at the time of Agha-Soltan's death.

A chapter on Existing Literature examines prior research conducted on the BBC, Al Jazeera English

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(along with their Arabic-language mother channel) and RT/Russia Today, along with academic studies of

possible antecedents to Agha-Soltan. This chapter makes extensive use of the research of Philip Seib, director of

the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy. Seib has written extensively on Al Jazeera

and the reframings encountered by mass media on the internet. Brief mention is given to the history of media

criticism of foreign reporting in the Middle East, with special attention given to the works of Edward Said and

the changes to Middle East reporting pre- and post- internet.

Possible antecedents to the coverage of Agha-Soltan's death – and the two videos themselves – appear in

numerous studies such as Hall Gardner's examination of the influence of portable transistor radios on coverage

of the 1989 Tienanmen Square events, Adrienne Russell's survey of new media effects on coverage of the 2006

Parisian banlieu riots and Mark Deuze's parsing of the role of mobile camera-equipped phones in turning

“observers” into news “producers,” along with the many studies of the role of social media and user-generated

content in coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Contemporaneous studies into the effects of gender, beauty, femininity and feminism into media

coverage of Agha-Soltan's death are also mentioned. Although BBC, Al Jazeera and RT coverage of Agha-Soltan

was rarely as unsubtle as the British newspaper which called her the “Angel of Iran,” writings by authors such as

Peggy Drexler and Golbarg Bashi are cited in order to examine the complicated question of how Agha-Soltan's

gender effected coverage of her death.

I also summarize the rich history of academic research on the BBC. Numerous studies of the media

organization's news-gathering, multimedia and public diplomacy presences have been published in recent years.

The BBC's relationship with the region, through the various BBC Persian and BBC Arabic services as well as

Anglophone broadcasts, was researcherd by Seib and Mohammed Ayish. Magisterial surveys of the BBC's

internal operations by Philip Schlesinger and others are parsed as well. Internal BBC studies on the use of social

media within the network are cited. Finally, an overview is made of allegations of bias in BBC coverage and

their possible applications to the network's Agha-Soltan depictions.

Also summarized is previous academic writing on Al-Jazeera English and RT. Due to the young age of

both networks, there is rather less literature on the pair. Nonetheless, books by Hugh Miles, Marc Lynch,

Mohammed El-Nawawy, Seib and others have discussed Al Jazeera's Arabic-language operations. However,

specialized research into Al-Jazeera's English-language coverage by John Owen, Tony Burman and El-Nawawy

is discussed, as is the smaller corpus of literature on RT put out by authors at the University of South California's

Center on Public Diplomacy and elsewhere.

My examination of BBC coverage of Agha-Soltan's death in the larger context of the Tehran

demonstrations finds an ongoing narrative where the network's attempt to perpetuate a “1979-in-2009” framing

rapidly gives way to childish infatuation with the possibilities of using user-generated video content to cover a

major world news event. Following the Iranian government's order that the BBC's Jon Leyne lead the country,

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the BBC came to frequently rely on user-generated video obtained via the internet to cover the events in Tehran.

In the 72 hours following Agha-Soltan's death, most news coverage of the shooting on the BBC was packaged

with a translated interview with her fiancee, Caspian Makan, that was originally aired on BBC Persian. In these

early days, Agha-Soltan is painted as a symbol of the Iranian government's brutal treatment of young, idealistic

protesters.

Over the remainder of 2009, the network aired extensive after-coverage of Agha-Soltan's death. These

stories were related to both breaking news stories such as her arba'een ceremony and to ongoing retrospective

features. Multiple packagings and framings of an interview with Arash Hejazi, the doctor who treated Agha-

Soltan after her shooting, were made. I analyze the multiple formats of this interview, of a documentary film on

Agha-Soltan that was broadcast on the internet and interviews with other figures, including Rostami Motlagh,

the mother of Neda Agha-Soltan. During this time period, a consistent pattern is uncovered where the BBC

actively perpetuates a “martyr” framing around Agha-Soltan's death that turns her into an unwilling symbol of

Iranian democracy. Both the Hejazi and Motlagh interviews emphasize the cost Agha-Soltan's death took out on

those around it: for Hejazi, exile from Iran and purported hounding by state authorities and for Motlagh, the

inability to properly mourn her daughter's death.

Similar coverage was broadcast on Al Jazeera. However, the network stayed largely true to their self-

proclaimed mission of “the voice of the global south.” While Agha-Soltan's depiction on Al Jazeera was as

sympathetic as the BBC's, Agha-Soltan is put into a pan-Muslim context several times. During a discussion on

Al Jazeera's Riz Khan talk show, callers and emailers use a story on Agha-Soltan's death as a reason to accuse the

larger Muslim world of forsaking Iran and “the readiness by Western media and politicians to accept any

criticism spread by Twitter against the Iranian government.” Another talk show on the network, media criticism

program The Listening Post, ran a segment accusing the Western media of “double standards” in their adoring

coverage of Agha-Soltan compared to the sparse coverage of an Egyptian woman named Marwa el-Sherbini who

was killed in a racist attack inside a German courtroom.

Al Jazeera's coverage was far less reliant on user-generated video content than that of the BBC, but the

same infatuation with new technology remains. Stories related to Agha-Soltan during 2009 primarily take a

sympathetic tone, but one with far less idealization of Agha-Soltan than that of the BBC. An interview with

Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi is held to establish that “Iran's Neda Killing 'Was Illegal.'” Al Jazeera

interviewed Makan as well; the network used a similar framing as the BBC while repackaging the interview in

far fewer formats.

In comparison, RT's coverage of Agha-Soltan's death was sparse, skeptical and hostile. One of the only

actual mentions of Agha-Soltan was from an interview show held in New York City's Times Square

neighborhood which asks questions of “the man on the street.” In this show, viewers were reminded that New

Yorkers think it is “too easy to cross the line between protests and riots.” RT's Iran coverage in general is found

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to veer into realms of conspiracy theory, with Western media accused of destabilizing Iran and viewers

consistently reminded of the Anglo-American role in engineering the 1953 coup in Tehran.

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Table of Contents

Preface - 3

Introduction - 5

Methodology - 15

Existing Literature - 19

Analysis of BBC Coverage - 41

Analysis of Al Jazeera English Coverage - 57

Analysis of RT/Russia Today Coverage - 68

Conclusions – 75

Appendix - 84

Bibliography – 105

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Preface

This thesis deals with the portrayal in the international press of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian

woman killed in the disorder following the 2009 Presidential election. Agha-Soltan's life and death were

interpreted very differently by Al Jazeera English, the BBC and Russia Today/RT, the three news services

analyzed herein.

For transcription of Arabic and Persian, the decision was made to keep usage and transliteration as

simple as possible. When video titles or commentary were written in either language, they are transcribed in

Arabic script as written. Al Jazeera and their programs are spelled with a capitalized “Al” (e.g. “Al Jazeera”) in

keeping with the network's own identification. All Arabic and Persian text is transliterated into Latin characters

except in the case of direct quotes from original source material and footnotes, which are left in original script in

order to accurately reflect URLs and publishing information. When directly quoting literature or web sources,

the original spelling is reproduced. Persian and Arabic transliteration was conducted via the mylanguages.org

website.

The process of producing scholarly literature on current events poses unique challenges. For obvious

reasons, a corpus of journal articles and academic texts on the aftermath of the 2009 election does not yet exist.

In the absence of a comprehensive history and time line of the post-election events, use was made of The New

York Times, The Economist, The Guardian and the Times of London for basic background research.

Similarly, academic literature for two of the networks profiled is rather sparse. Al Jazeera English was

only founded in 2006 and RT/Russia Today was established at the end of 2005. Academic literature on both does

exist; various scholarly papers and books referencing them have been used as sources herein. However, the bulk

of objective and detailed writing about the operations of Al Jazeera English and RT was originally published in

mass market newspapers and magazines. For this thesis, use has been made of examinations of these networks

from non-academic journal periodicals such as The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The

American Prospect and The New York Times.

These sources are also supplemented by the rich subgenre of academic literature dedicated to Al Jazeera

English's Arabic mother network. The Dubai-based network's meteoric rise and attendant controversies –

including its coverage of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, the Second Intifada and its contentious relations with

Middle Eastern governments - are all extremely well-documented. As will be explained later, Al Jazeera and Al

Jazeera English share a common corporate hierarchy, with the degree of their respective integration still open to

informed speculation.

In order to create a reasonable sample size of content to analyze, this thesis makes use of web content

only. While television footage from the Iranian post-election events and Agha-Soltan's death is available from

sources including New York's Paley Center and the British Library in London, several factors led me to consider

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web content. First was the ease of accessing publicly-available internet content. Secondly, the important fact that

all three networks have converted the bulk of their on-air material into web content. But most importantly, the

circumstances of Agha-Soltan's death warrant a specific focus on web content. Her death was captured on mobile

camera phone footage and quickly spread worldwide via the internet. In order to analyze the framing of her

death and the rapid changes that the narrative of the Iranian post-election events took in worldwide media, a

specific focus on web content was necessary.

For the purposes of this thesis, “content” is defined as any material which was made publicly available

by the networks or by individuals on the internet, be it on their websites or on external services such as

YouTube/Twitter. When analyzing the web content of all three news services, content from between the dates of

June 20, 2009 (when Agha-Soltan died) to September 22, 2009 (three months after her death was first mentioned

by the BBC) was searched for the keyword “Iran” via Google and YouTube. Additional usage was also made of

stories relevant to Agha-Soltan found by an identical search made for the date range of September 23, 2009 to

December 31, 2009. Content which only had a tenuous relationship to Iran, however, was not included. Also

filtered out were duplicate entries (i.e. the same piece of television footage uploaded both to YouTube and to Al

Jazeera English's web site); however, repurposings of the same content were counted as different pieces (ie the

BBC producing multiple edits of interviews with Arash Hejazi).

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Introduction

On June 20, 2009, a 27-year-old Iranian woman named Neda Agha-Soltan was reportedly traveling in

her automobile with three other passengers to attend a demonstration in Tehran's Ahzadi (Freedom) Square

protesting the outcome of the 2009 Iranian Presidential election. One of the passengers has been positively

identified as Agha-Soltan's music teacher, Hamid Panahi; two others have yet to be conclusively identified1. The

four had parked their car on Karegar Street, a short (~600 meter) side street in the vicinity of the former United

States embassy, located approximately 400 meters to the east2.

The four passengers exited the car on a day when at least two of them – Agha-Soltan and Panahi – had

attended other demonstrations in Tehran. Total attendance at the June 20 demonstrations was estimated in the

tens of thousands, far fewer than at the initial protests the week prior. The day prior, Supreme Leader Ali

Khamenei implied that protesters would be at personal risk in a televised speech3.

While on Karegar Street, Panahi told the Los Angeles Times that the four were standing outside when he

heard a sound and saw Agha-Soltan collapse to the ground. In Panahi's exact words, “we were stuck in traffic

and we got out and stood to watch, and without her throwing a rock or anything they shot her […] It was just one

bullet.”

In the seconds that followed, two separate videos were taken of Agha-Soltan's death that spread

worldwide. The first video was taken on a mobile camera phone with a high megapixel count and zoom

capability, while the second video lasts 15 seconds and features a low megapixel count.

The most widely distributed video of Agha-Soltan's death, hereby referred to as 'Video A,'4 is of higher

quality technically. In one of Video A's first uploads to YouTube on June 20, 2009, it was titled in Persian

“Keshth Shdn Dkhtr Jwan Twst Lbas Shkhsa" - “Young Girl Killed By Plain Clothes.” It apparently begins a

short period of time after Agha-Soltan was shot and lasts, in the longest version yet found online, for 40

seconds5. In it, we see a woman's body at :00 being carried either from a sidewalk or from immediately behind a

black car by two men. At :01, the camera then zooms in (at a speed suggesting a camera zoom rather than the

1 Panahi gave an interview to the American Los Angeles Times shortly after Agha-Soltan's death. See Borzou Daragahi, “From the Archives: Family, friends mourn 'Neda,' Iranian woman who died on video,” Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2009, http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-neda23-2009jun23,0,6240992.story?page=1 (accessed December 16, 2009) that contradicted later testimony placing Panahi and Agha-Soltan at demonstrations for at least two hours prior..

2 Distance compiled using Google Maps' Tehran data, originally gathered by Europa Technologies and current to 2009.3 Nazila Fathi, “Iran's Top Leader Dashes Hopes for a Compromise,” New York Times, June 19, 2009,

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/world/middleeast/20iran.html?_r=1 (accessed December 16, 2009).4 An early upload was by “Hamedfrt,” “کشته شدن دختر جوان توسط لباس شخصی,” YouTube, June 20, 2009,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrdRwOlmIxI (accessed February 15, 2010). It is impossible to trace the original upload to Facebook and YouTube due to deletions of violent content that took place on both sites during June 20, along with Facebook's privacy settings.

5 “Feelthelight,” “Iran, Tehran: Wounded Girl Dying in Front of Camera, Her Name Was Neda,” YouTube, June 20, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdEf0QRsLM (Accessed February 15, 2010).

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cameraman moving closer) and jerks slightly to show the two men placing her on the pavement. One older man

– Panahi - is wearing a blue/white striped shirt and has a ponytail; the other has short hair and is wearing a white

shirt. Numerous bystanders are seen in the background, hovering around a separate parked car. Two other men

are briefly glimpsed in the off-camera area to the woman's left. At :02, the camera zooms in closer and the

viewer can see a pool of blood below the woman, who is wearing a chador with blue jeans and white sneakers.

Between :03 & :05, the cameraman moves from filming in front of the woman at a distance to standing close-up

by her side. A woman's face is now clearly visible and her fists are clinched by the sides of her head. Both men

are on-camera holding her body and apparently trying to assist the woman. Starting at :07, the injured woman's

eyes roll into the back of her head while agitated shouting takes place in the background. By :12, a third man is

now on-camera attempting to help; the camera still remains centered on the injured woman. At :13, copious

blood begins streaming from the woman's mouth and quickly pools on-camera, both on the ground and in her

chador. At :18, another man appears on camera in white shirt and jeans – later confirmed as a doctor, Arash

Hejazi - and we hear anguished male and female screams. Hejazi blocks the gaze of the camera for

approximately .5 seconds; once he is no longer blocking the lens, the arms of a fifth man become visible on-

camera. The cameraperson moves around the newest person who arrived on camera at :22 and regains a clear

view of the woman.

This shot at :22 shows a clear view of a seriously injured woman. Her face is now covered in blood and

bystanders are clearly giving her medical assistance. Anguished cries are clearly audible from the man in white

shirt and jeans. By :25, he is kneeling next to the injured woman, along with the other men. At :32, he begins to

clear a pool of blood from her face. He then proceeds to give CPR and to assist with her breathing. More cries

from the crowd are audible the whole time. The audio stream drops out at :37. The video ends at :40, with the

second man in the white shirt still attempting to give medical assistance. The crowd is still around around him,

but the two men who were previously helping him have withdrawn into the crowd.

The second video of Agha-Soltan's death6 ('Video B'), lasts only 15 seconds and was taken on a lower

quality mobile camera phone. At :00, it opens with the cameraperson standing in the middle of Karegar Street.

The camera is situated approximately 10 feet behind the original origin point of Video A and the cameraperson is

filming from the left of a parked green car. Behind the green car, a driveway or alley is visible leading off

Karegar Street; the familiar white car is parked at the other end of the driveway. Video B's camera operator

appears to have started filming 25 seconds after Video A began. A crowd of four men is visible immediately

around Agha-Soltan, with two kneeling around her body and two standing at her left. Five individuals are on-

camera at the intersection of the alleyway/sidewalk and the street. One, wearing a white patterned shirt and blue

jeans, is holding an object in his hands that appears to be a camera or a mobile phone. This is likely to be the

cameraman of Video A; his position is consistent with the camera shot of the man in the white shirt. Beyond him

6 “b0wl0fud0n,” “Shot By Basij [WARNING GRUESOME],” “YouTube, June 20, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmi-LePl894 (Accessed February 15, 2010).

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and the alleyway bystanders, there are two more individuals of indeterminate gender further down the sidewalk.

A man in a half-unbuttoned white shirt is also visible walking down the street and another bystander can be

spotted at far right.

As the cameraman ran towards Agha-Soltan, his finger slipped onto the lens at :01. By :02, the view is

clear again and we see a pool of blood collecting around the woman's sneakers. The cameraman maneuvers

around the crowd and focuses on her lower body between :05 & :07. Agha-Soltan's jeans are clearly covered in

blood, we see blood on her chador and the men assisting her are also getting covered in blood.

By :08, we have a clear view of Agha-Soltan's face and blood can be clearly seen pouring from her

mouth and nose. The cameraman switches positions and by :09 there is a close-up of her face. It is covered in

blood, it is being propped up in one of the man's arms with blood is pooling around Agha-Soltan's left eye.

The anguished cries on camera become even louder between :09 & :10 and the camera loses focus on

Neda and picks up the crowd instead. A woman wearing a chador is also present; several others appear at the

camera's margins. At :13, the man giving assistance is clearly seen with his hands on Agha-Soltan's face, covered

in blood, while the loud cries continue. Audio cuts out at :13.5 and the camera lens turns towards the ground

immediately after. At :15, the video ends.

Various translations have been made of the audio that was captured by both cameramen. It is agreed that

one of the bystanders is shouting “please don't die!”7 and “press it, press it, press it!” in reference to the wound.

One full early translation of Video A reads8:

“"She has been shot! She has been shot!" And we see a few men run towards her, and there is some blood around

her already. They hold her down. One man says (and I think it is the person w/ the camera), "someone come and drive her

away [to hospital]." The other guy (leaning on her) says "don't fear, don't fear" with a soft voice. Then she opens her eyes

and look towards the direction of the camera [AND I WILL NEVER FORGER THIS FACE]. "Press it! press it!" [...] "press

it, press it, press it, PRESS IT!!!! PRESS IT!!!" says the man as she starts bleeding from the bullet entry point. In shock,

she knows it is bad. Then it is just chaos.“

An alternate translation was provided in the November 2009 BBC Two television documentary This

World: “An Iranian Martyr”9: “Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid, Neda. Stay with me, Neda! Stay with me!” This

World will be discussed in greater depth later.

Despite Panahi's testimony implying the pair had not attended any June 20 demonstrations, three other

videos posted to YouTube conclusively identify Agha-Soltan and Panahi at Tehran demonstrations on the same

7 For one of the earliest translations, see comment “ChantalMatar,” “Iran, Tehran: Wounded Girl Dying in Front of Camera, Her Name Was Neda,” YouTube, video posted June 20, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdEf0QRsLM (accessed December 17, 2009).

8 “bmorsh,” ibid.9 This World, “An Iranian Martyr,” BBC News, November 24, 2009,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/8361837.stm (accessed December 17, 2009).

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day. The wealth of mobile camera phones on the streets of Tehran in the election's wake appear to have poked

holes in his story.

The first video with Agha-Soltan and Panahi is a 61 second clip of Iranian demonstrators being

attacked10. At :01, a man and woman clearly identifiable as Panahi/Agha-Soltan – wearing identical clothing and

physically indistinguishable from the figures in Videos A & B – are walking arm-in-arm in a large bloc of

demonstrators that have taken over a wide Tehrani boulevard. Agha-Soltan and Panahi are on the far left of the

boulevard. Agha-Soltan and Panahi disappear to the left of the camera a few seconds later; the video then

focuses on protesters in the central lanes. At :17 an attack by unknown parties appears to take place ahead of the

cameraperson; the lens is then covered as they run. By :29, the image is stabilized. The cameraperson appears to

have found a safe spot to film from the entryway to a building. At :34, smoke is visible nearby and multiple

people in civilian dress – one middle aged - are filmed running away. In front of the entryway is an intersection11

and Panahi is clearly identifiable by his white ponytail and striped shirt in the crowd on one corner. The

remaining video consists of footage of protesters from the doorway.

The second video featuring Agha-Soltan and Panahi was also taken during the same demonstration12.

This shorter 25 second clip, based on the poor resolution, also appears to have been filmed on a low-end mobile

camera phone. The cameraperson, amazingly enough, appears to be filming at the intersection that the

cameraperson of the previous video was filming between :29 and :61.

Panahi and Agha-Soltan are clearly visible standing side-by-side from the back at :01 and then the

camera veers away from them by :02; the video instead focuses on nearby demonstrators chanting “Allah

Akbar.” Agha-Soltan and Panahi appear in the crowd of protesters at :05 as the camera swings back to focusing

on the street sign, which is unreadable due to the low resolution. The pair are visible in the crowd between :05

and :19. At one point Panahi turns around to look at the protesters behind him; his face becomes clearly visible

on camera. The pair then join a crowd of marching protesters.

The third video that appears to show Agha-Soltan and Panahi was apparently filmed in the minutes

before her death13. This short 60 second clip was filmed on a rooftop and focuses mainly on nearby fires, gunfire

and Basij paramilitaries on motorcycle. This video was likely filmed on a camcorder, a camera or a high-end

mobile camera phone owing to the high resolution. A gunshot is audible at :03 and a crowd of approximately 15

people runs down the street. At :06, the scene abruptly changes (two video files spliced together?) to a zoomed-

out wide view of Karegar. Fires are clearly visible in the distance. Now people no longer seem to be running.

10 One early appearance of this video is “redeyetreefrogjili,” “A Video of Neda Aghasoltan About One Hour Before Her Death,” YouTube, June 25 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i48qZpxI5Y&NR=1 (accessed December 17, 2009). Interestingly, this video is the only one “redeyetreefrogjili” ever posted to YouTube.

11 The resolution of this video made positive identification of the street sign impossible.12 One early appearance of this video is “nov1110,” “Tehran Neda Before She Got Shot 20 June Tazahorat,” YouTube, June

21 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD7UjH9FYis (accessed December 17, 2009).13 “ahriman56,” “Neda Before She Gets Shot,” YouTube, June 24, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asv7nFFbw54

(accessed December 17, 2009).

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The cameraperson pans down the street at :15 and focuses on a nearby intersection – not the intersection the

previous two videos were filmed at. Agha-Soltan and Panahi are briefly visible here. Despite the rooftop view,

Panahi can be clearly identified due to his white hair and bright blue shirt. At :25, fires are visible in the street

and a parade of Basij can clearly be identified riding down an intersecting street on matching red motorcycles

at :31. The cameraperson then films the Basij for 10 seconds before panning out. Now the viewer can clearly see

people on the street running from the Basij. At :44, a loud sound is heard – apparently a gunshot – and the

stunned cameraperson drops the camera. At :45, the image suddenly changes to a shot of people on a street

corner and a frame is placed around a pair that the video claims is Agha-Soltan and Panahi. However, the blurry

close-up zoom on the camera used on the pair makes positive identification impossible. Nonetheless, the This

World documentary features the footage.

Piecing together an exact account of the events before and after Agha-Soltan's death on June 20 has

proven difficult. Family members were in contact with Agha-Soltan that day14 along with her fiancee Caspian

Makan15.

In the days and weeks following Agha-Soltan's death, Panahi gave numerous interviews to the press that

contradicted each other. He told the Los Angeles Times that the death occurred as they just left the car16 and

implied that the government - “they” - had shot Agha-Soltan:

“Her friends say she, Panahi and two others were stuck in traffic on Karegar Street, east of Tehran's Azadi

(Freedom) Square, on their way to the demonstration sometime after 6:30 p.m. After they stepped out of the car to get some

fresh air and crane their necks over the jumble of cars, Panahi heard a crack from the distance. In the blink of an eye, he

realized Agha-Soltan had collapsed to the ground. "We were stuck in traffic and we got out and stood to watch, and without

her throwing a rock or anything they shot her," he said. "It was just one bullet."“

However, Panahi contradicted the account he gave to the Western media in an interview he granted to

Iranian state television in July 2009. In an article published by state-run English language news channel Press

TV, Panahi seems to deny any possible government involvement in her death17:

“Arash Hejazi, an Iranian physician currently studying in England, told the BBC that he had witnessed a member

of the Basij shooting Neda. His comments were a contributing factor in the Western-led media campaign against the

Ahmadinejad government. Panahi said contrary to Hejazi's account of the incident, 'there were no security forces of Basij

members nearby'. “In his interviews with foreign media outlets, Mr. Hejazi said that the culprit behind Neda's death was

arrested on the spot. I saw nothing of the sort. There were only about a dozen people present at the scene. No one was

14 This World.15 Ibid.16 Daragahi.17 Press TV, “Key Witness Disputes Hejazi Account of Neda Death,” Press TV, July 29, 2009,

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=101954&sectionid=351020101 (accessed December 18, 2009).

14

arrested,” he said. To prove his point, Panahi said that new revelations have found that Neda was in fact shot not in the

chest, but in the back. Panahi is not the first to dismiss Hejazi's account of Neda's death. Earlier in June, the man who drove

Neda to hospital had also said that there were no Basij members around at the time.”

Panahi also appears to have given a short interview to the New York Times' Roger Cohen on June 22 as

well18.

Nonetheless, it is important to note the possibility that Panahi may have given his interview to Press TV

under pressure from outside authorities. Multiple credible reports have surfaced of government harassment and

threats to witnesses and others connected with Agha-Soltan. Hejazi fled Tehran fearing for his life and entered

police protection in Britain19. Makan was held in Evin Prison for more than two months after giving interviews

to foreign media outlets20; he is presently in exile as well. Hajar Rostami, Agha-Soltan's mother, reported that her

family was forbidden to hold a memorial service21; she was later attacked and threatened by Iranian government

officials22. Under these circumstances, a multitude of potential scenarios exist under which Panahi may have

changed his story. As the New York Times' Robert Mackey pithily puts it, Panahi's Los Angeles Times interview

was given “in a much more defiant mood, after the Iranian government had denied her family permission to bury

or mourn her in accordance with Shiite tradition.”23

An alternate narrative was constructed by Hejazi, the other primary on-site witness. In a September 2009

documentary by American public television broadcaster PBS (which, incidentally, was a retooled and abridged

version of This World, he gives an extended account of events24):

According to this narrative, Hejazi and his friends walked out onto an "alley that ends on Karegar Street"

when he saw a crowd of protesters that ranged in ageed and outward religious observance. Riot police were

standing 200 yards away and firing tear gas directly at protesters. Agha-Soltan was among the protesters

chanting something along the lines of "Death to the Dictator" while in the company of Panahi.

Hejazi claims he recognized Agha-Soltan because she was wearing a sun hat at the time and was

18 Roger Cohen, “Life and Death in Tehran,” New York Times, June 22, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/opinion/23cohenweb.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2 (accessed December 18, 2009).

19 Martin Fletcher, “Iranian Doctor Arash Hejazi Who Tried to Rescue Neda Soltan Tells of Wounds That Never Heal,” Times of London, November 13, 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6913273.ece (accessed December 18, 2009).

20 Arash Sahami and Angus Macqueen, “Neda Soltan's Boyfriend Caspian Makan Interview,” The Observer, November 15, 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/15/iran-neda-caspian-makan-interview (accessed December 18, 2009).

21 Wayne Drash, Octavia Nasr, “Neda's Mother: She Was 'Like an Angel',” CNN, November 5, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/11/05/neda.mom.speaks/index.html (accessed December 18, 2009).

22 Martin Fletcher, “Grave of Neda Soltan Desecrated by Supporters of Iranian Regime,” Times of London, November 16, 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6917831.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093 (accessed December 18, 2009).

23 Robert Mackey, “July 30: Updates on Post-Election Protests in Iran,” New York Times, July 30, 2009, http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/updates-on-new-post-election-protests-in-iran/ (accessed December 18, 2009).

24 Frontline, PBS, “Interview with Arash Hejazi,” September 18, 2009, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/deathintehran/interviews/hejazi.html (accessed December 18, 2009).

15

accompanied by Panahi. Basiji were also in the area, accompanying the riot police. Hejazi also asserts that he

saw neither the police nor Basij using firearms at this time. However, he heard gunfire shortly thereafter.

Following the first sounds of gunfire, Agha-Soltan was shot directly in front of the Karegar Street alley

from the front. Hejazi saw "blood gushing out of her chest" and tried to give her "primary medical care" and to

put pressure on her wound. According to Hejazi's interview, the injury took place in the chest below the neck and

that "her aorta was shot [and] her lung as well."

Agha-Soltan lost consciousness, according to Hejazi, 30 seconds later and passed away shortly

thereafter. In the interview, Hejazi takes pains to note that he was in a "state of shock" due to the violent

circumstances of the death he witnessed. Bystanders subsequently carried Agha-Soltan's corpse into the body of

yet another bystander who drove her to a hospital. Meeanwhile, a man was being assaulted by a crowd while

shouting "I didn't want to kill her." After some period of the man being assaulted, he was let go following a heatd

argument over whether to kil him or not. An ID card grabbed out of the man's pocket, according to Hejazi,

proved his membership in the Basij.

Hejazi notes that members of the crowd were afraid of giving him to the police for fear of their own

safety and were afraid of Basiji reprisal if they killed the man. Instead, the crowd apparently let the suspected

shooter go.

The video footage of Agha-Soltan's death, especially the blood flow from the mouth and nose, is

consistent with being shot in the front with damage to the lungs. However, no sun hat was visible on Agha-

Soltan in any of the five videos taken that day.

Basij demonstrations held in Tehran in November 2009 accused Hejazi of killing Agha-Soltan; a crime

scene reenactment was subsequently held intending to prove that Hejazi was the “real killer.”25

A third account was given by Rostami, who had been in phone contact with Agha-Soltan all day. This

account was given to the American network CNN26 and is copied verbatim:

“On June 20, Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, headed to Tehran's Nilofar Square, where thousands of protesters gathered. Clashes

were particularly intense that day, with demonstrators and riot police squaring off. Neda, accompanied by her music teacher,

called home with frequent updates. "Mom, there are just too many clashes going on. There are a lot of police and forces

around."

Tear gas was lobbed at the crowd. Neda headed to a medical clinic to get her eyes washed. "My eyes are really burning

hard," she said. Twenty minutes later, Neda's mom reached her again. "She said she was on her way back home -- that I

25 Radio Zamaneh, “Iran: Neda's Mother Condemns Street Reenactment of Her Death by Basij,” December 4, 2009, http://www.payvand.com/news/09/dec/1038.html (accessed December 18, 2009).

26 Drash & Nasr.

16

need not worry." Neda told the same thing to her aunt and uncle, who also called to check up on her. Wearing blue jeans, a

black shirt and white sneakers, Neda walked toward her car, parked on a side street not far from the heated protests. "It

didn't occur to her that anything was going to be different," her mother said. Then, Neda was killed. A single bullet struck

her chest. Recalling that day, her mother paused in the hour-long interview. The family, she said, has gone back to the scene

and retraced Neda's movements. "She was only 26 steps from her car."”

In addition to the multiple narratives describing Agha-Soltan's death, a second problem exists in tracking

the spread of the Neda death videos. Multiple accounts confirm that YouTube deleted many bloody Iranian

videos in the first weeks of the Iranian protests. Some early copies of the Neda Agha-Soltan video appear to have

been among them. YouTube's terms of service specifically forbid “graphic or gratuitous violence” along with the

amorphous category of “gross-out videos of accidents, dead bodies or similar things intended to shock or

disgust.“27 Robert Mackey, who “liveblogged” the events in Iran for the New York Times, noted this

phenomenon28 as did numerous YouTube users in June 200929.

According to Olivia Ma of YouTube, the deletion of violent Iranian protest videos was a combination of

company discretion and users deciding to delete videos on their own30:“We've noticed some claims going around that YouTube has been engaging in acts of censorship and removing some of

these videos from the site. Unless a video clearly violates our Community Guidelines, we will not take it down. In general,

we do not allow graphic or gratuitous violence on YouTube. However, we make exceptions for videos that have educational,

documentary, or scientific value. The limitations being placed on mainstream media reporting from within Iran make it even

more important that citizens in Iran be able to use YouTube to capture their experiences for the world to see. Given the

critical role these videos are playing in reporting this story to the world, we are doing our best to leave as many of them up

as we can. YouTube is, at its core, a global forum for free expression. Take note that if you see a video that is unavailable on

the site, it may be because the user decided to remove the video him or herself.”

It is important to note that YouTube seems to have lightened their hand in regards to deleting Iranian

footage in the days following Agha-Soltan's death. A post on the official YouTube blog from June 22 was

devoted to violent footage from the Iranian protests31 and included an early (June 20) upload of Video B32.

Despite these gaps in the record, a general trajectory of Video A's dissemination has been established.

According to Matthew Weaver of The Guardian, it was originally uploaded to Facebook and YouTube by an

Iranian refugee in the Netherlands33. The refugee claims to have received the video from one of Hejazi's friends,

27 YouTube, “YouTube Community Guidelines,” 2009, http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines (accessed December 18, 2009).

28 Robert Mackey, private correspondence.29 “Why are Videos From Iran Being Deleted From YouTube?,” YouTube Help Forum, June 2009,

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=5c80505ef1f5919b&hl=en (accessed December 18, 2009).30 Olivia Ma, “More Footage From Protests in Iran on YouTube,” YouTube Blog, June 16, 2009, http://youtube-

global.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-footage-from-protests-in-iran-on_8218.html (accessed December 18, 2009). 31 Ramya Raghavan, “More From Iran: On-The-Ground Footage, Tribute Videos,” YouTube Blog, June 22, 2009,

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-from-iran-on-ground-footage.html (Accessed December 18, 2009).32 “LastFreedomNet,” “A Very violent Film. Tehran 20 June 2009,” YouTube, June 20, 2009, http://youtube-

global.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-from-iran-on-ground-footage.html (Accessed December 18, 2009).33 Matthew Weaver, “Iran in Crisis: Live,” The Guardian, June 22, 2009,

17

whom he knew from Tehran and who was not publicly identified in The Guardian. The refugee then uploaded

the video to YouTube and Facebook and e-mailed it to the BBC and CNN. The YouTube version was uploaded

on June 20, 2009 with the Persian title “Kesheth Shedn Dekhetr Jewan Tewset Lebas Shekhesa” - “Young Girl

Killed By Plainclothes” in English34. Attached to it was the following message:

“This is the text which I have copied and did paste it here from my friends email, as bellow:

بعد از ظهر این دختر جوان توسط لباس شخصی ها کشته شد 7امروز، سی خرداد، ساعت Basij shots to death a young

woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests

At 19:05 June 20th

Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the

rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a

doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the

victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street

and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my

friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know. “

The statement “I am a doctor” implies that Hejazi had some hand in forwarding the video to the refugee,

even if he was not the cameraperson himself. Hejazi also appears to have assisted in forwarding the video,

according to a separate message attached to the early Video B upload to YouTube35 by a user who identifies

himself as b0wl0fud0n on that service and as @changcommaalex on Twitter:“Original source - Facebook: Basij shoots to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June

20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with

her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at

the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the

impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.

The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from

tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the

world know. Follow me here on twitter for updates: http://twitter.com/changcommaalex”

Despite early censorship attempts on the part of YouTube and Facebook, the two videos spread across

the internet. From there they quickly made their way to journalists – within 48 hours of the videos' creation, they

were aired on television news and featured in the print editions of major newspapers36. A major factor in the

dissemination of the Agha-Soltan videos was Twitter. Described by its creators as a “real-time short messaging

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jun/22/iran-ayatollah-ali-khamenei (Accessed December 22 2009).34 “hamedfrt,” YouTube.35 “b0wl0fud0n,” YouTube.36 Nazila Fathi, “In A Death Seen Around the World, a Symbol of Iranian Protests,” The New York Times, June 22, 2009,

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/middleeast/23neda.html?_r=1 (accessed February 15, 2010).

18

service that works over multiple networks and devices,“37 Twitter allows users to broadcast short messaging

service (SMS) messages, simultaneously, to subscribers and the general public. Importantly, the service does not

require any knowledge of English – Twitter embraces non-Latin alphabets. Thanks to Twitter's ability to also

send computer URLs as messages, users have created programs that allow them to distribute hypertext links to

images and video to the public at large.

Portions of the Iranian public and the diaspora eagerly embraced Twitter. While an exact count of Iranian

Twitter users has not been attempted – the service does not require users to provide a physical location – use of

Twitter during the days and weeks after the Iranian election was widespread. At one point, Twitter founder Biz

Stone announced that the site's host moved a scheduled outage during the middle of the night in the United

States (where the service is based), for the convenience of Iranians38:

“A critical network upgrade must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter. In coordination with Twitter, our

network host had planned this upgrade for tonight. However, our network partners at NTT America recognize the role

Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran. Tonight's planned maintenance has been

rescheduled to tomorrow between 2-3p PST (1:30a in Iran). Our partners are taking a huge risk not just for Twitter but also

the other services they support worldwide—we commend them for being flexible in what is essentially an inflexible

situation.”

With users in Iran being able to upload video and sound from demonstrations and to report, as native

Iranian speakers, with an ability that most foreign reporters lacked, the traditional flow of knowledge was

disrupted. Rather than adhering to the post-Edward Said model of Middle East reportage functioning “as

interpretations produced for and by […] communities of interpretation,”39 the phenomena of internet-based news

dissemination put a worldwide audience in the hands of Iranian local news producers.

The distribution of the Agha-Soltan videos took place in a decentralized marketplace of information

where traditional patterns of global news distribution were disrupted and rendered superfluous. What took place

when news channels such as the BBC and Al-Jazeera aired the Agha-Soltan videos was a perfect example of

Giddens' “reverse colonization”40 theory. In a 1999 lecture, Giddens stated41:“But globalisation is becoming increasingly de-centred - not under the control of any group of nations, and still less

of the large corporations. Its effects are felt just as much in the western countries as elsewhere.

This is true of the global financial system, communications and media, and of changes affecting the nature of government

itself. Examples of 'reverse colonisation' are becoming more and more common. Reverse colonisation means that non-

western countries influence developments in the west. Examples abound - such as the Latinising of Los Angeles, the

emergence of a globally-oriented high-tech sector in India, or the selling of Brazilian TV programmes to Portugal.”

37 Twitter.com, “About Us,” Twitter.com, http://twitter.com/about#about (accessed December 28, 2009).38 Biz Stone, “Down Time Rescheduled,” Twitter Blog, http://blog.twitter.com/2009/06/down-time-rescheduled.html (accessed December 28, 2009).39 Edward Said, Covering Islam (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 8-9.40 Anthony Giddens, Runaway World: How Globalization is Shaping Our Lives (London: Routledge, 1999), 6-20.41 Anthony Giddens, Globalization,

http://www.periwork.com/peri_db/wr_db/2006_April_12_18_57_11/Globalisation.html (Accessed December 28, 2009).

19

Part of this, also, it seems, is individuals in Iran (not traditionally considered a “western country”) being

able to create media which reaches the “west” either without a mediator or with a mediator who is bound by

strenuous terms. Nonetheless, reframings of the Agha-Soltan story occurred on the BBC, Al Jazeera English and

RT/Russia Today that varied widely. But, in the end, the general public had access to the raw footage for the first

time.

20

Methodology

This thesis examines internet-distributed Anglophone news content from the BBC, Al Jazeera and

RT/Russia Today mentioning the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman killed in the disorder

following the 2009 Presidential election and other current events in Iran. For the purpose of research analysis,

“content” includes traditional text-based articles, photographs, audio (both internet-only and

terrestrial/satellite/shortwave radio distributed on the internet) and video (both internet-only and television

segments distributed on the internet). Agha-Soltan's life and death, along with the general situation in Iran, were

interpreted very differently by all three networks.

In order to answer the question of how Agha-Soltan's death was interpreted by these three networks and

in order to prove the conclusion that coverage was effected primarily by bias (the “2009-as-1979” effect) and the

unpredictable dissemination patterns of the internet, several analytical methods were used. The preferred method

of analysis used herein is content analysis, conducted according to the definition of Earl Babbie in ”The Practice

of Social Research,” which will then be applied in a primarily qualitative manner to the source material at hand.

Qualitative analysis was conducted through a mixture of case testing and evaluation of words/images/audio with

special attention paid to terminology, imagery (including video), choice of primary and secondary sources in

news stories and constructions of conscious or unconscious narratives.

This qualitative analysis will examine the varying framings created by the three media networks in their

internet coverage of Neda Agha-Soltan's death and in the post-election disturbances that took place in Iran

during 2009. The timeframe in which content was chosen for examination spans from the date of the election on

June 12, 2009, until December 31, 2009. However, the bulk of content analyzed falls within the dates of June 20,

2009 (when Agha-Soltan was shot) until September 22, 2009, three months after the BBC first reported on Agha-

Soltan's death.

Simultaneously, this thesis also applies a limited amount of quantitative analysis methodology to its

evaluation of Agha-Soltan coverage on varying networks. The frequency and length of Agha-Soltan content is

analyzed. Also analyzed is “regular” Iran coverage, defined as any content discussing Iran as either its primary

or secondary source with the exception of business stories and sports stories that do not mention current events

in Iran anywhere. The number of posted pieces of content discussing Agha-Soltan are compared to the number of

"regular" pieces discussing Iran during the timeframes of June 20-22 and June 23-December 31 across all three

networks. All content discussing Agha-Soltan is sorted into one of three categories, “cursory,” “medium,” and

“in-depth.” Content described as "cursory" will only have mentions of Agha-Soltan in one or two sentences.

"Medium" content will have at least one paragraph devoted to Agha-Soltan. "In-depth" content will center

around Agha-Soltan.

21

Attention is also paid to how the post-election events are portrayed (for instance, the varying use of the

terms “riots,” “demonstrations” and “disturbances”). Special attention is also paid to the description and framing

of Agha-Soltan's death videos. Depending on the network and the date, the fact that she is a

woman/Iranian/student/Muslim/protester/a bystander is alternately highlighted at the expense of other facets of

Agha-Soltan's life. RT/Russia Today consistently asks critical questions of Agha-Soltan's death with implications

that she was a protester that "went too far" in her defiance of the government while a popular Al Jazeera English

program (The Listening Post) broadcast a segment to the internet comparing coverage of her death to that of

Egyptian-German hate crime victim Marwa El-Sherbini. Meanwhile, the BBC found itself in the days following

Agha-Soltan's death nicknaming her the “Angel of Iran.”

Also undergoing analysis is the choice of individuals interviewed in Agha-Soltan related content by both

the BBC and Al Jazeera English. Depending on the date, the network and the particular aim of the story, various

sources were drawn on including Hamid Panahi, Arash Hejazi, Caspian Makan and Hajar Rostami. They were

interviewed at varying points in time and by different networks. The facts they stated in the interviews differed

(or, more accurately, were framed extremely differently). Content obtained from the networks' sister services

used in the pieces will be examined to see if it is used in a different context or towards different aims than in the

original. The photographs, audio and video accompanying text-based content will also be analyzed through

respective qualitative analysis methods in line with Babbie.

Content will also be analyzed according to “situational framing” - the identities and goals of the news

organizations placing stories on the internet. The BBC has maintained an extensive Persian-language service for

years that (like all BBC services) is funded by the British government. The Iranian government jammed BBC

Persian broadcasts during much of the post-election period and accused the BBC of fomenting conspiracies and

spying. Al Jazeera English was founded by Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and parent network

al-Jazeera is headed by Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani. To this day, al-Jazeera is subsidized by bin Khalifa

and maintains ambiguous links to the Qatari government – which has pursued a generally pro-Iranian foreign

policy. Meanwhile, Russia Today – though state-funded like both the BBC and Al Jazeera – maintains a

staunchly pro-Kremlin editorial line and frequently mentions both trade/commodity links with Iran and Russia's

involvement in the Iranian nuclear program in news coverage.

For the purposes of this thesis, “content” is defined as any material which was made publicly available

by the networks or by individuals on the internet, be it on their websites or on external services such as

YouTube/Twitter. When analyzing the web content of all three news services, content from between the dates of

June 20, 2009 (when Agha-Soltan died) to September 22, 2009 (three months after her death was first mentioned

by the BBC) was searched for the keyword “Iran” via Google and YouTube. In Google, the searches were

restricted to domains "news.bbc.co.uk," "english.aljazeera.net" and "www.rt.com" as appropriate. The search

22

results were then filtered to remove duplicate stories and extraneous stories (ie sports and business stories that do

not make any mention of factors outside of results/changes in prices) at the author's discretion. However,

repurposings of stories (ie multiple edits of the same interview and stories edited for length/content for mobile

internet or YouTube) are included at the author's discretion.

A separate time-period analysis is also made for June 20 to June 22 to reflect the initial dissemination of

Agha-Soltan's death videos. This 72 hour analysis is also included in the larger June 20-September 22 analysis as

well. Additional usage was also made of stories relevant to Agha-Soltan found by an identical search made for

the date range of September 23, 2009 to December 31, 2009. Content which only had a tenuous relationship to

Iran, however, was not included. Also filtered out were duplicate entries (i.e. the same piece of television footage

uploaded both to YouTube and to Al Jazeera English's web site); however, repurposings of the same content were

counted as different pieces (ie the BBC producing multiple edits of interviews with Arash Hejazi).

In order to competently discuss media coverage of the Agha-Soltan videos, the videos themselves were

analyzed. As this thesis conclusively proves, two separate videos of Agha-Soltan's death were taken by two

camerapersons in close physical proximity to each other. These videos were both uploaded to the internet at

approximately the same time and have become conflated in the public consciousness. For the purposes of

analyzing the two Agha-Soltan videos (and several other related videos analyzed out of necessity), a textual

analysis was conducted of the events depicted on camera according to guidelines laid out by Kimberly

Neuendorf. Neuendorf's guidelines offered primary criteria for analysis of camera angles, location of filming,

audio anomalies and quality of video and other technical qualities. For other aspects of the analyses including

extrapolating the physical location of events in Tehran and the construction of proposed timelines of

dissemination, the author's personal experience as a journalist was drawn upon.

For several questions of media coverage of the 2009 Iran events, the author conducted interviews by

email with journalists who were either primary or secondary witnesses to the post-election events in Tehran.

These journalists are all credited in footnotes where applicable and offered invaluable insight into the news-

gathering process in Iran following the elections.

Five tables are included in this thesis for each organization for referral, resulting in 15 total. These tables

are based on the statistical methodology listed above. The first table analyzes individual content pieces for

agenda-setting. Pieces are coded as falling under the categories of “hard news,” “op-ed” and “hybrid” depending

on the terminology used within. The presence of emotional descriptors that, intentionally or unintentionally,

could cause the receiver to interpret stories as “pro-Neda” or “anti-Neda” are used as the primary criteria for

determination of coding within the three categories. More detailed information is available for each media

organization.

A second table analyzes the number of sources used on a per-piece bases. Pieces are coded based upon

23

the number of sources used, with specific mention made of all sources used. The intent in this

qualitative/quantitative analysis is to purposefully examine both the sources of original content (social media as

per the root of this thesis? material from the same media organization? material from different media

organizations?) and the range of sources used by each media organization.

Owing to the character of new media, detailed tables will be created centered around keyword analysis.

“Keywords,” in this case, are to be considered as nouns, adjectives and verbs that repeatedly show up in each

media organization's content. Due to the fact that the BBC, Al Jazeera and RT/Russia Today are headquartered in

separate states with differing internal styles and highly different ratios of native vs. second language English

speakers, keywords will vary wildly. However, a detailed list is posted of keywords (along with their definitions)

for the reader.

Content tone is the subject of a separate table. Based on the agenda-settting criteria listed for the first

table and the third table, articles will be coded as “for” “against” and “neutral” on the question of the

justification of the 2009 Iranian post-election protests/gatherings. Due to the linguistic and stylistic differences at

Al Jazeera, the BBC and RT/Russia Today, the coding for each network will be different and will be separately

discussed in each chapter.

Finally, a separate table will undertake visual analysis of all video and graphics ported to the web. Due to

the nature of visual communication as interpreted by Babbie, both still images and video are coded into this

table. Visual content will be analyzed for source, use and style.

24

Existing Literature

The demonstrations and riots that followed the 2009 Iranian Presidential election marked the most

violent unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Despite the cottage industry of literature surrounding

1979, a limited number of books and papers deal with international media coverage of Iranian.

The best known text written about media coverage of 1979 remains Edward Said's Covering Islam. As

the title indicates, Said uses “Islam” as a common denominator in analyzing North American and European

reportage of the amorphous Middle East/Near East region. However, Said's approach as a media critic is almost

a mirror image of the “Orientalism” he famously decried. Wide-ranging trends in North American/European

media with origins as diverse as budget restrictions (the use of one regional bureau to cover the entire Middle

East/Near East) or individual news show programming styles (criticism of American network PBS'

MacNeil/Lehrer Report's coverage of the 1979 Revolution42) were used by Said as signifiers of what he viewed

as “an invented or culturally determined ideological framework filled with passion, defensive prejudice,

sometimes even revulsion.”43 Said's monolithic “Islam” that he said dictated all foreign media coverage of the

Middle East/Near East is an inflexible entity; other authors such as Aziz al-Azmeh offer an infinitely more

multifaceted model of Islam44 that is much more applicable to BBC coverage of Agha-Soltan's death.

In one memorable passage, Said excoriated the aforementioned American television program for hewing

to the cliches of American news broadcasting45:

“Given an unconventional news story about as unfamiliar a part of the world as Iran, the viewer will immediately be made

to feel an intense disparity between the mobs “out there” and the carefully dressed, carefully balanced cast of guests whose

uniform qualification is expertise, not necessarily insight or understanding.”

The difference between the Iran coverage of 1979 and the Iran coverage of 2009 is summed up in this

sentence. The international media's heavy reliance on internet services such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

allowed the Iranian public to serve as the direct producers of content – in effect, letting the mobs “out there”'

mediate their own portrayal in foreign countries with vastly different cultures. However, the flip side of this

process is that the BBC, Al Jazeera English and Russia Today/RT all reframed the death of Agha-Soltan and the

demonstrations in culturally familiar idioms. This is a dramatic change from past framings of Iran in the Western

media. A good example of this can be found in a 2007 working paper by Katharina Notzold which cities Thomas

Deltombe and Kai Hafez to put forward the point that Iran has been viewed primarily as “Islamic” in news

reports since the downfall of the Shah46.

42 Said, 97.43 Said, 7.44 Aziz al-Azmeh, Islams and Modernities (New York: Verso, 1993).45 Said, 95-6.46 Katharina Notzold, “Do Western Media Really Understand the Islamic World?,” working paper, University of Erfurt,

January 2007, http://www.maz.ch/aktuell/news/270_N%C3%B6tzold.pdf (accessed January 5, 2010).

25

All this is a long cry from the jingoistic shoddiness that the American and British press exhibited during

the 1979 revolution. Philip Seib quotes Haynes Johnson of the Washington Post47:

“Americans awoke in the morning to see the menacing figure of the ayatollah breathing hatred and preaching holy war

against 'pagans' and 'heathens.' They went to bed at night after seeing mobs of Iranian demonstrators marching before the

occupied US Embassy, waving their fists, shouting defiant slogans, burning the American flag and effigies of Uncle Sam

and Jimmy Carter. Morning after morning, evening after evening, the TV networks showed these same scenes. Through TV,

the Iranian crisis became institutionalized and a part of American daily life... “

A number of academic papers have examined precedents for the role of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

in disseminating the Agha-Soltan video worldwide. Hall Gardner has written about the portable transistor radio's

role in “providing alternate views to those of the government” during the Tienanmen Square events of June 198948. Similarly, Mark Deuze has made a convincing case that the rise of mobile phones and the internet has recast

the “masses” as journalistic producers rather than consumers, upending the role of traditional journalists in the

process49. The variety and range of user-created content during the 2009 Iranian events – aptly shown by the

existence of two separate videos of Agha-Soltan's death and multiple videos of her at demonstrations being

disseminated worldwide by an informal web of internet users in Iran and abroad – may have been preceded by

near real-time coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Donald Matheson and Stuart Allan have written extensively

on the flood of near-real time footage American and British media entities were able to generate courtesy of the

journalistic 'embedding' process taking place and subsequent dissemination50.

Although the 'embeds' of the Iraq war were the product of a much different process than the citizen

activists/journalists of 2009 Iran – the 'embeds' were part of a conscious Anglo-American military decision to

rally citizen support behind a deeply unpopular, divisive war – the result was the same. Matheson and Allan also

presage the parallels between the Agha-Soltan footage and earlier historic events51:“It was by extraordinary chance that the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963 was captured

on an 8mm home-movie camera by clothing manufacturer Abraham Zapruder. In stark contrast, it has become common in

recent times for violent events, such as the shooting by Chinese border patrols of Tibetan pilgrims making their way across a

high Himalayan pass to India in 2006, or the assassination of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto in 2007, or the killing of

Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai by a Burmese soldier earlier that same year, to be videoed on hand-held digital

cameras or cell phones by members of the public standing nearby.”

However, the dissemination of footage of this type often faces challenges due to its graphic content.

Again using the Iraqi precedent, Michael Pick and Robin Gold have noted that citizen-generated internet video

and photographs of war and civil unrest face distribution challenges due to the extreme graphic content often

47 Philip Seib, Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy (Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 1997), 32.48 Hall Gardner, Cyber-conflict and Global Politics, ed. Athena Karatzogianni (London: Routledge, 2008), 20.49 Mark Deuze, “Toward Professional Participatory Storytelling: Mapping the Potential,”manuscript presented at 2005

MIT4 conference, http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit4/papers/Deuze.pdf (accessed January 5, 2010).50 Donald Matheson and Stuart Allan, Digital War Reporting (Cambridge: Polity, 2009), 66.51 Matheson and Allan, 102.

26

shown52. In the case of Agha-Soltan, this was demonstrated through the early deletions of her death videos by

both YouTube and Facebook. One of the major factors behind the spread of the Agha-Soltan videos is the spike

in internet usage worldwide that resulted from individuals seeking news from Iran. Although detailed metrics of

site usage are only sparsely available, the existing evidence matches up with past events of world importance.

Seib's prior work on correlating internet site usage patterns to major news events such as the 2003 invasion of

Iraq, September 11th and the Kosovo War53 appears to anticipate Agha-Soltan. Also noted by him is Al Jazeera's

stated justification for showing bloody footage from the Iraq conflict, which parallels that of YouTube in

justifying the continued hosting of Agha-Soltan's death videos – freedom of speech54:

“Editor-in-chief Ibrahim Hilal defended these reports [showing atrocities] stating that “what we are doing is showing the

reality. We didn't invent the bodies, we didn't make them in the graphics unit. They are shots coming in from the field. This

is the war. We have to show that there are people killed in this war. The viewer has to judge whether war is the most suitable

way to solve problems. If I hide shots of British or Americans being killed, it is misleading to the British and American

audience.”

A precedent to the heavy use of SMS, camera phones and internet services during times of civil unrest

can be found in the 2005 French banlieu riots. Adrienne Russell, in her research into media dissemination of the

riots55, has noted numerous trends that paralleled 2009 Tehran. Much like in Tehran, the traditional news media

in France (including Le Monde, Liberation and Le Figaro) relied disproportionately on user-generated content.

In the cases of the banlieu riots, SMS messages, blog interviews with rioters, live updates from Wikipedia and

comments from users on newspaper websites were reprinted verbatim in the newspapers' print editions. Although

the effect of mobile camera phones was negligible due to technology restrictions in 2006, the manner in which

Le Monde and L'Hebdo featured user-generated content in riot coverage was almost identical to that of the BBC

and Al Jazeera English during the 2009 demonstrations.

Giddens' theory of reverse colonization applies neatly to the Agha-Soltan videos' worldwide spread. It is

also an example of information 'contraflow' from the “East” to the “West.” In a previous paper, Mugdha Rai and

Simon Cottle analyzed cultural contraflow in television news as a result of satellite channels resulting in

pluralization56. Although Rai and Cottle came to the conclusion that the flow of information between “West” and

“East” was primarily one-way, they did find an interesting exception: the growth of satellite television news

networks in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia centered around Al Jazeera and the Arab and Muslim

52 Michael Pick and Robin Goode, “Iraq News: Bloggers and Independent Journalists are the Only Reliable Sources for Western Media News (Before They Are Censored),” http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/12/23/iraq_news_bloggers_and_independent.htm (accessed January 5, 2010).

53 Beyond the Front Lines, 90.54 Philip Seib, “Hegemonic No More: Western Media, the Rise of al-Jazeera and the Influence of Diverse Voices,”

International Studies Review 7 (2005).55 Adrienne Russell, “Digital Communications Networks and the Journalistic Field: The 2005 French Riots,” Critical

Studies in Media Communication 24, no. 4 (2007).56 Mugdha Rai and Simon Cottle, “Global Mediations: On the Changing Ecology of Satellite Television News,” Global

Media and Communications 3, no. 1 (April 2007), p. 63.

27

expatriate communities of the “West.”57.

A similar theme in regard to Middle Eastern satellite television broadcasting that has ramifications in the

events of 2009 can be found in the works of Naomi Sakr and Ingrid Volkmer. Sakr noted the divergence in news

reporting between Arabic and non-Arabic language television in Europe58. In some cases, such as the reaction of

French viewers to the Hezbollah Al Manar television station's coverage of the Denmark Jyllands-Posten

Mohammed cartoon controversy, portrayal of stories differed markedly59. Volkmer posits that the existence of

these foreign-language satellite stations creates a supranational space for European viewers60:“In times of political crisis, the access to diverse 'conflict' information seems to position national publics in a supranational

space. Whereas about 20 years ago, only major US and European channels could afford to distribute programmes in a

number of world regions, today these somewhat globalized satellite cultures include, besides commercial US satellite

channels, national broadcasters which deliver their programmes on various continents (not only in Europe). Among these

are Arirang World, CCTV-9 – a Chinese English-language channel, a worldwide Korean channel and Cubavision

Internacional, as well as news channels from France 24, Al Jazeera, Zee TV & BBC World.”

Al Manar – an Arab-language channel – also offers an example of citizen content production finding its

way to the “West.” However, in this case, the “citizens” are also Hezbollah sympathizers and members. Writing

in the Wall Street Journal, Mark Dubrowitz, Jay Solomon and Mariam Fam detailed how the channel's locally

created content managed to create subjective, pro-Hezbollah news shows while simultaneously attracting

multinational advertisers such as Proctor & Gamble and Coca-Cola61.

One trope in early media coverage of the post-election unrest was how user-created content sites did a

better job of covering events than traditional media. Ari Berman claimed that Twitter users in Iran constituted a

revolution62 and Lev Grossman referred to the use of Twitter by Iranian protesters as “the medium of the

moment.”63

An example of how traditional media sources such as the BBC and al-Jazeera latched onto user-created

content on Twitter was cited by Jeff Jarvis64:“Journalists end up playing new roles in the news ecosystem. Again, I followed the Iran story in the live blogs of The New

York Times, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, and Andrew Sullivan and they performed new functions: curating, vetting,

57 Ibid.58 Naomi Sakr, “Diversity and Diaspora: Arab Communities and Satellite Communication in Europe,” Global Media &

Communication 4, no. 3 (2008), 283.59 Ibid.60 Ingrid Volkmer, “Satellite Cultures in Europe,” Global Media & Communication 4, no. 3 (2008), 237.61 Mark Dubrowitz, Jay Solomon and Mariam Fam, “After Bombing, Al-Manar TV Keeps On Broadcasting; Sign of

Hezbollah Resolve,” Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2006, http://www.defenddemocracy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11777766&Itemid=0 (accessed January 6, 2010).

62 Ari Berman, “Iran's Twitter Revolution,” The Nation, June 15, 2009, http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/443634 (accessed January 6, 2010).

63 Lev Grossman, “Iran's Protests: Why Twitter is the Medium of the Movement,” Time, June 17, 2009, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1905125,00.html (accessed January 6, 2010).

64 Jeff Jarvis, “The King of Twitter,” BuzzMachine, June 26, 2009, http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/06/26/the-king-of-twitter/ (accessed January 6, 2010).

28

adding context, adding comment, seeking information, filling out the story, correcting misinformation. They worked with

social media, quoting and distributing and reporting using it. I watched the filling out of the Neda video story as the

Guardian called the man who uploaded it to YouTube and Paulo Coelho blogged about his friend in the video, the doctor

who tried to save Neda. Piece by piece, the story came together before our eyes, in public. The journalists added

considerable value. But this wasn’t product journalism: polishing a story once a day from inside the black box. This was

process journalism and that ensured it was also collaborative journalism – social journalism, if you like. “

Kathika Muthukumaraswamy has found roots in this phenomenon within Lazarsfeld's theories of the

two-step flow of communication – the idea that mediators serving as “opinion leaders” play a central part in

transmitting information from the media to audience65. Although commentators have been almost unanimously

united in proving that new media was not the primary organizing tool of the Iranian demonstrators, they have

proven the utility of new media services as an impromptu mediator between the audience and the “opinion

leaders.” A similar phenomenon was noted in the Arab world by Khalil Rinnawi, who noted how the balance of

the transnational media's “structural-organizational level” has changed due to media technology innovations66.

Ellen Goodman traced the impromptu distribution of the Agha-Soltan videos, once again using the Tienanmen

comparison67: “If the searing image of Vietnam was the AP photo of a girl stripped naked by napalm, if the image of Tienanmen Square

was a young man facing down tanks, well, the iconic image of Iran is a cellphone video of Neda Agha Soltan dying on the

streets of Tehran. And this time the message was in the momentum. The mournful video was passed from a cellphone in

Tehran to an e-mail address in Europe, then to Facebook and YouTube, and finally CNN. All in a matter of hours.”

Others noted this apparent shift in communication. Brian Stelter of the New York Times has detailed how

the wealth of user-generated content from Iran forced newspapers to rewrite the traditional “rules of journalism.”68 The aforementioned “liveblogs” of Iranian unrest coverage published by the New York Times and The

Guardian used a variety of unverified user-generated content that were presented to users with disclaimers,

including video footage, anonymous Twitter messages and pseudonymous blog postings. Stelter interviewed Bill

Mitchell of American journalism thinktank Poynter Institute, who said that the extent of public involvement in

coverage of the Iran crisis seemed to herald a new way of thinking about journalism.

This sea change was confirmed by one of the highest ranking figures in world media. Reuters News'

editor-in-chief David Schlesinger told the International Olympic Committee that the growth of Twitter would

65 Kathika Muthukumaraswamy, “J-Tweeters: Are they journalists or tweeters? Does it matter?,” Online Journalism Blog, June 25, 2009, http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2009/06/25/j-tweeters-are-they-journalists-or-tweeters-does-it-matter/ (accessed January 5, 2010).

66 Khalil Rinnawi, Instant Nationalism: McArabism, al-Jazeera and Transnational Media in the Arab World (Lanham: University Press of America, 2006), 10.

67 Ellen Goodman, “Journalism in the era of Twitter,” Boston Globe, June 26, 2009, http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/06/26/journalism_in_the_era_of_twitter/ (accessed January 5, 2010).

68 Brian Stelter, “In Iran, Journalism Makes Use of Unverified News,” New York Times, June 28, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/business/media/29coverage.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=middleeast (accessed January 5, 2010).

29

force his agency to rethink rights, accreditation and “journalism itself” during a meeting to discuss the issue of

press accreditation:69

“Fundamentally, the old media won’t control news dissemination in the future. And organisations can’t control access using

old forms of accreditation any more. Those statements mean what they say and not necessarily more. I am not arguing that

newspapers and magazines and news services will die. No, just that they must change. I am not arguing that organisations

that define themselves by issuing formal accreditations to professional journalists will disappear from the face of the earth.

No, just that they must change their definition of what they are and what they do.“

However, others criticized the predominance of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in coverage of Agha-

Soltan's death and the Iranian demonstrations. The fact that Twitter was frequently used to convey partial or

incorrect information has been noted in many sources70. Many false rumors generated in the Iranian fog of war

managed to make it online. False accusations were made of three million protesters at an early June

demonstration, that Mir Hussein Mousavi was put under house arrest in June 2009 and of an annulment of

Presidential election results. Even one of the largest proponents of user-created content in traditional media,

American journalist Andrew Sullivan, noted that Twitter was more about finding out “the mood than hard facts.”71 Similarly, his fellow Atlantic journalist Marc Ambinder came to the conclusion that the use of Twitter by

Iranians was more of “an intelligence service for the Iranian opposition” than a primary source for foreign

journalists72.

In one example of the limitations of user-generated content in providing accurate Iranian news,

misidentified photos of Agha-Soltan circulated online for more than 72 hours after her death. Allegedly, earlier

versions of the Agha-Soltan death video posted by the aforementioned Hamed R. referred to her as “Neda

Soltani.” A photo of a similar-looking young woman bearing that name was found on the internet, which was

quickly forwarded to demonstrators. This photo of a woman in a hijab was then disseminated by these

demonstrators around the internet. One American writer, Amy Beam, detailed in June 2009 what she discovered.73

According to Beam, she was told by one of the early YouTube video disseminators over Twitter that the

name of the dead woman was “Neda Soltani” and that the video had been “sent to him, outside of Iran, by the

doctor who had been at Neda's side as she bled to death.” Following that, Beam conducted a Facebook search for

69 David Schlesinger, “Rethinking rights, accreditation, and journalism itself in the age of Twitter,” Reuters, June 24, 2009, http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-editors/2009/06/24/rethinking-rights-accreditation-and-journalism-itself-in-the-age-of-twitter/ (accessed January 5 2010).

70 Joshua Kucera, “What if Twitter is leading us all astray in Iran?,” True/Slant, June 15, 2009, http://trueslant.com/joshuakucera/2009/06/15/what-if-we-are-all-wrong-about-iran/ (accessed January 4, 2009).

71 Andrew Sullivan, “Something is Happening in Iran,” The Atlantic, June 15, 2009, http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/something-is-happening-in-iran-2.html (accessed January 4, 2009).

72 Marc Ambinder, “The Revolution Will Be Twittered,” The Atlantic, June 15, 2009, http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/06/its_too_easy_to_call.php (accessed January 4, 2009).

73 Amy Beam, “Mistaken Neda Photo Symbols of Iranians for Freedom,” wipoun, June 23, 2009 (accessed January 4, 2009).

30

“Neda Soltani” and found, among them, a Neda Soltani whose picture was identical to that being forwarded

around the internet. She messaged her and received a positive reply approximately one hour later, indicating that

she was alive and well – and not the woman in the video.

The pair then became Facebook friends and carried on a subsequent correspondence. Beam also began

contacts with the “Hamed R.” who uploaded the early Neda video onto the internet as well. Her interest piqued

by the subject, Beam found this message, translated from Persian to English from a n unidentified website that is

currently (according to Ryan) offline, posted to her Facebook wall by Sultani:The posting was shown under the thumbnail profile photo and the name of the living Neda Soltani, so visitors to

my Facebook wall mistakenly assumed the photo of the living Neda Soltani was the woman who was Neda Agha-Soltan, the woman who was killed. So the photo of Neda wearing the patterned headscarf was copied and reposted EVERYWHERE (sic) within minutes and hours.

By the time I woke up June 22, the wrong photo of the living Neda Soltani was being displayed on TV, blogs, youtube (sic) videos, placards and banners around the world. Neda Soltani emailed me via Facebook begging for help to correct the mistake. I have spent hours posting corrections and asking people to remove her photo. Most people do; some people seem hell-bent on ignoring the truth and they insist on spreading this photo as the symbol of the Neda who was killed.”

One technically-inclined internet news source, the information technology blog Techdirt, used this

incident to demonstrate the limitations of Facebook as a news source, stating that “certainly, bad information

flows in this day and age, but the series of events and confusion that led to this result is quite fascinating, if a bit

scary (especially for the living Neda Soltani)74.

Multiple analysts have formulated a feminist framing of Agha-Soltani's death. The longtime leftist

commentator Alexander Cockburn alleged that the death of Agha-Soltani gained undue attention in the face of

other atrocities such as the Sri Lankan conflict due to her physical beauty75. Latoya Peterson has contrasted the

Agha-Soltan footage with other widely viewed Iranian demonstration pictures and found that the visual

narratives of women in the demonstrations “emphasize clothing and beauty.”76 Peggy Drexler, a professor at

Cornell University and a blogger at the popular American Huffington Post web site, did not address Agha-Soltan

directly while claiming that the large number of women at demonstrations was a result of the contrast between

the Islamic Republic's success at getting women into universities compared with their limited job opportunities

after graduation77. Golbarg Bashi, who wrote her thesis on feminism and the human rights discourse in Iran, cites

Agha-Soltan in describing a “feminist awakening” in post-revolution Iran78. A similar reframing took place in the

74 Anonymous, “The Speed At Which Wrong Information Flows,” Techdirt, June 23, 2009, http://techdirt.com/articles/20090623/1153075328.shtml (accessed January 7, 2009).

75 Alexander Cockburn, “Twittergasms,” The Nation, June 24, 2009, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090713/cockburn (accessed January 2, 2010).

76 Latoya Peterson, “Global Politics of 'Pretty' Women Bends Coverage of Iran's Election Protesters?,” Women's News Network, May 26, 2009, http://womennewsnetwork.net/2009/06/26/global-politics-of-%E2%80%98pretty%E2%80%99-bends-coverage-of-irans-election-protesters/ (accessed January 7, 2010).

77 Peggy Drexler, “It's Hard to Debate Feminism When You Are Dodging Bullets,” The Huffington Post, June 25, 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peggy-drexler/its-hard-to-debate-femini_b_220591.html (accessed January 7, 2010).

78 Golbarg Bashi, “Feminist Waves in the Iranian Green Tsunami?,” Tehran Bureau, June 29, 2009, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/06/feminist-waves-in-the-iranian-green-tsunami.html

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American press when Tracy Clark-Flory wrote a piece in Salon connecting the dots between the female

protesters of 2009 and those of 1979 and 1906, citing personal interviews with Iranian-American scholars Hamid

Dabashi and Abbas Milani79. While again not focusing on Agha-Soltan, the popular American female-interest

website Jezebel connected female beauty with a fight for personal autonomy that was taking place in the streets

of Tehran. Jezebel's Megan Carpentier put forward the argument that female beauty and the wearing of cosmetics

is a form of resistance in the Islamic Republic and that “Western” observers who comment on that “don't realize

that it's part of the point.”80

Other observers, primarily in the Arab world and the diaspora, have framed Agha-Soltan's death in an

Arab-feminist context. This framing, while not denying the brutality of her death, follows Cockburn in asking

why so much attention was paid to Agha-Soltan in lieu of other tragedies. The August 21, 2009 episode of Al-

Jazeera English's magazine show The Listening Point, which will be discussed later, explicitly compared Agha-

Soltan's death to that of the brutally murdered Egyptian-German woman Marwa el-Sherbini.

A second example of this Arab-feminist framing can be found on the Muslim feminist site Muslimah

Media Watch. Although explicitly pan-Muslim rather than pan-Arab, their findings largely gel with Khadr's

hypothesis. A writer on the site, the pseudonymous Fatemeh, claims that the videos of Agha-Soltan's death

enforce colonialist attitudes81:

“Aside from the talk that she is a martyr for Iran’s opposition movement, many in the West are using her death to educate

themselves about Iran’s current crisis, viewing Iran through a lens of violence and cruelty, which many add to their current

knowledge of the country as repressive, backward, and unsafe for Americans. Neda’s death may help Iranians band closer

together and become stronger in their fight for a government that treats them with respect, but here in the West, her lifeless

body is little more than another reminder of the instability and danger of “over there”. “

A similar viewpoint can be found in the writings of Sumbul Ali-Karamali, author of The Muslim Next

Door. Ali-Karamali contrasts Agha-Soltan's death to the 2004 movie The Stoning of Soraya M., which was based

on the real stoning of a teenage girl in 1990s Tehran82.

All of these interpretations of Agha-Soltan's death, while rooted in sympathy for the plight of the woman

in Iranian society, remove her from the context of her surroundings. Writers who were not familiar with the rich

history of Iranian protest/dissent were unaware of prior precedents for the women of 2009. While, of course, the

graphic death of a young Iranian woman with precise facial expressions on air never occurred in the past, women

(accessed January 7, 2010).79 Tracy Clark-Flory, “Unveiling the Revolution,” Salon, June 27, 2009,

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/06/27/iran_women/ (accessed January 7, 2010).80 Megan Carpentier, “In Iran, 'Pretty' Is Sometimes the Protest,” Jezebel, June 16, 2009, http://jezebel.com/5292899/in-

iran-pretty-id-sometimes-the-protest (accessed January 7, 2010).81 “Fatemeh,” “There Will Be Blood: Neda Agha-Soltan's Post-Mortem Image in the Media,” Muslimah Media Watch,

June 26, 2009, http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2009/06/there-will-be-blood-neda-agha-soltans-post-mortem-image-in-the-media/ (accessed June 26, 2009).

82 Sumbul Ali-Karamali, “Stoning Soraya, Murdering Neda, and the Hope of Muslim Women,” Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumbul-alikaramali/stoning-soraya-murdering_b_222090.html (accessed January 7, 2010).

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have participated in Iranian dissent before.

Hammed Shahidian, writing on the Islamic Revolution, noted the importance of female members in

groups opposed to the Shah's rule83. During the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran during World War II, the

Communist Tudeh party actively established a woman's branch and a monthly political periodical aimed at

woman, Bidari-i Ma, was released. This, however, was not to last. Years later, as Tudeh aligned itself with

Khomeini in the 1979 Revolution, it published the periodical Women's World - dealing primarily in “recipes and

sewing advice.”84 Although women participated in underground guerrilla groups, Shahidian feels they were

“symbols” who “although admired, had little relevance for the woman who was busy changing diapers and

preparing meals and was outraged by the exploitation of her sexuality in everyday life.”85

The direct participation of women in the 1979 Islamic Revolution was studied by Patricia J. Higgins,

who noted how Tehrani women turned International Women's Day into a demonstration against compulsory

veiling laws less than 60 days after the Shah fell from power86. The “thousands of women” who took part in that

demonstration shouted slogans and displayed signs protesting the exclusion of women from the judiciary and

military, along with proposed (and arguably regressive) amendments to Shah-era marriage and family law

proposed by Khomeini. Janet Afary's description of that demonstration shows parallels to 200987:

“In response to Khomeini's edict, thousands of angry urban women and their male supporters poured onto the streets near

the university, where they held large demonstrations against the ruling. The demonstrations continued for five days. At their

height, tens of thousands of women and men participated in Tehran. Some leftist men formed a cordon around the women,

fighting off armed attackers from the Hezbollah. The demonstrators chanted “No to the Chador,” “Down with the

Dictatorship,” and even the occasional “Down with Khomeini.” One widely quoted banner read, “We Made the Revolution

for Freedom, But Got Unfreedom,” while others proclaimed, “At the Dawn of Freedom, There is No Freedom.” Hezbollah

chanted in response, “You Will Cover Yourselves or be Beaten,” but their actions were mainly nonverbal: stones, knives,

and even bullets aimed at protesting women.”

Higgins notes that some female protesters participated in “leftist political organizations or guerrilla

groups”88 but that the potential talent pool for these was limited to urban middle-class women who had lived

abroad prior. However, the increasingly religious aspect of anti-Shah and immediate post-revolution

demonstrations made them “safe” for working-class and poor women in Higgins' interpretation. This argument

may hold water when applied to the events of 2009; many of the “Green Revolution” signifiers are religious and

Shi'ite. Although much of this is via the primacy of religion in the Islamic Republic's public sphere, an argument

83 Hammed Shahidian, “The Iranian Left and the 'Woman Question' in the Revolution of 1978-79,” The Journal of Middle East Studies 26 (1994), 223-247.

84 Shahidian, 236.85 Ibid., 235.86 Patricia J. Higgins, “Women in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Legal, Social, and Ideological Changes,” Signs: Journal of

Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 10 No. 31 (1985), 477-494.87 Janet Afary, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2009), 273.88 Higgins, 486.

33

for it making the 2009 protests “safe” can be made.

Afary's analysis of sexual politics in Iran also includes the culture of militant resistance among Iranian

women. The various anti-regime guerrilla movements that evolved in the 1960s such as the Fedayeen Khalq and

Mojahedeen Khalq all had a large percentage of female members. Again, it is noted that their membership drew

primarily from the urban middle-class. However, Afary downplays the fact that many members had traveled

abroad in favor of noting that most were university students89. There was a class divide within the urban middle-

class in both. Fedayeen members were primarily “dressed in jeans, short-sleeved T-shirts, and Maoist shirts”

while Mojahedeen members tended to wear the hijab90. It is important to note that Agha-Soltan – and many of

the 2009 protesters – wore makeup and embraced the complicated relationship of post-1979 urban women to the

hijab. Many of these women were later killed engaging in terror attacks or under torture. The Fedayeen granted

them the traditionally male-only status of shahids (martyrs) and wrote semi-hagiographic accounts of their

lives91. Portrayals of their deaths were absorbed by the tradition of “Shi'i-Iranian veneration of pain, suffering

and martyrdom.”92 Although Agha-Soltan was not a professional revolutionary, and in fact, appears to have been

highly politically engaged at all, these portrayals prefigure how she was treated in her death. However, all this

may have been for naught. The bulk of male Fedayeen membership took a more regressive view of women and

may have even disapproved of the prominence of women in the group. According to Afary, who cites Maziar

Behrooz, “the Fedayeen's ambivalent stance toward women's rights during the revolution was the trigger for the

group's breakup and the unraveling of the secular Iranian left as a whole.”93

A nuanced portrayal of Iranian protest before the panopticon of user-generated content, outside of the

Tehrani metropolis can be found via Mary E. Hegland. Hegland chronicled the activities of Iranian women in

Aliabad, a small village outside Shiraz94 before and during the 1979 Revolution. Despite conservative social

mores constraining the public behavior of women, the women of Aliabad participated in the Revolution. By

defining the Shah's downfall as a religiously sanctioned event, the town's women eagerly participated in protests.

Despite the fact that only 11 out of Aliabad's approximately 500 women worked outside the home, many

participated in protests and demonstrations. More women participated in the protest who had daughters or

relatives in Shiraz than did not. Teachers served as the group's vanguard. Ironically enough, the BBC played a

role in their protests through translations English-language broadcasts. Later on, they participated in protests in

Aliabad that paralleled the growth of demonstrations during 2009:

“The women agreed to go on their own demonstration after dark, about 7:00. When the time came, some of the women were

89 Ibid., 245.90 Ibid., 245-8.91 Afary, 246.92 Ibid., 249.93 Ibid., 250.94 Mary E. Hegland, “Aliabad Women: Revolution as Religious Activity,” Women and Revolution in Iran (ed. Guity

Nashat) (Boulder: Westview Press, 1983), 171-194.

34

having second thoughts, but a few resolute ones gathered the whole group together, and they came out. They walked up the

alley shouting their chants. When the men heard their voices, they came out and joined in shouting slogans. The women

were somewhat nervous, but they were also pleased, excited, and very proud of themselves. The following evening the

women again assembled to march. This time they were joined by a few men and a group of teen-age boys. Their slogan

shouting began to follow a pattern: the men and boys, marching together in the front, shouted the first phrase in a

revolutionary couplet; the women and girls, marching behind, responded with the second phrase. Others joined the marches

as they proceeded throughout the village; even some of the most pious and modest women ventured out. The demonstrators

gave special attention to shouting slogans when they passed the courtyards of known Shah-supporters. This time the

marchers covered more distance than they had the night before. The women began to feel that much was possible.”

Moving away from the feminist interpretation, an alternative framing of Agha-Soltan's death in the

Anglophone media was that of the “snuff film” - American/British slang for film showing the death of an

individual. A reporter for CNN, Carol Costello, explicitly compared the Agha-Soltan footage to that of

massacred American protesters at Ohio's Kent State University95. According to media critic Matthew Balan96:

“Anchor Kyra Phillips introduced the overall theme of Costello’s report: “By now, you’ve probably heard about Neda, the

young Iranian woman that was gunned down in Tehran. Well, in death, she’s become quite a symbol of countless Iranians

demanding new elections. The question now: will the memory of Neda help make that happen?” After giving some details

into the college student’s death, the correspondent described the international reaction to it: “It seems the whole world now

knows Neda and aches for her- and why not? It watched her die.” Costello subsequently played a clip of Iranian author Azar

Nafisi’s reaction to the Neda death video. She then proposed her question about the impact of the video: “It’s difficult to say

right now, though, if this image of Neda will change everything. We know that pictures sometimes do. Many believe this

shot taken at Kent State of a student gunned down after a Vietnam War protest helped end the war, yet this video of a lone

student standing up to Chinese tanks did not end communism in China.”

This argument was echoed by American media critic Dana Stevens97:

“I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the entire unedited Neda video on YouTube; it feels too close to a snuff movie.

Assuming this graphic clip really does document a young woman’s death at the hands of paramilitary snipers—something

we lack the reporting to confirm—what gives us the right to watch it and forward to and fro as proof of our solidarity with

the forces of democracy and reform in Iran (something that, as you point out, Mousavi is far from representing)? I wouldn’t

want my own death, or that of someone I loved, to be instrumentalized in that way. (We don't, for example, treat the deaths

of U.S. soldiers abroad as YouTube-able moments.) And the fact that “Neda” is a young and pretty woman somehow adds to

the ickiness of disseminating the scene of her murder (if that is indeed what the clip shows) as a propaganda tool.“

95 Carol Costello, Newsroom, CNN, June 22, 2009.96 Matthew Balan, “CNN's Carol Costello Equates Neda Murder With Kent State,” NewsBusters, June 23, 2009,

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2009/06/23/cnns-carol-costello-equivocates-neda-murder-kent-state (Accessed January 7, 2010).

97 Dana Stevens, “Is the “Neda” Video a Stunt Movie?,” DoubleX, June 22, 2009, http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/neda-video-snuff-movie (Accessed January 7, 2010).

35

Jennie Yabroff at the American edition of Newsweek makes a similar point98:

"The Western memory museum is now mostly a visual one," Susan Sontag wrote in 2004, following the release of the Abu

Ghraib torture photographs and videos. Today, even more than when she wrote those words, the Internet, cell phones, and

cable TV have made that museum all-access, and open 24 hours. Within hours of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was

shot when she got out of her car amid antigovernment protests in Tehran on Saturday, graphic videos of the final seconds of

her life were available on YouTube, and being broadcast repeatedly by CNN and other news channels. The New York Times

printed stills from the video of Agha-Soltan lying on the ground with her eyes open, with captions describing "blood

gushing from her body."

A wealth of research exists concerning BBC Middle East and foreign coverage. But oddly, the best

known scholarly text about Middle Eastern media coverage, Said's Covering Islam, makes no mention of the

BBC at all – a surprising omission given that the book discusses everything from the American CBS news

network to Le Monde99. The BBC's foreign service – which includes foreign-language television and radio

broadcasts - has made considerable inroads into the Middle East. Rinnawi noted the BBC Arabic radio service's

gained in listenership during the post-Nasser era100. Mohammed El-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar confirmed that

the BBC was the model for al-Jazeera in an interview with Washington bureau chief, Hafez al-Mirazi101. The

BBC Arabic radio service, in fact, is the network's oldest foreign-language venture, as Seib noted in 2008102 - it

was founded in 1938 in the midst of serious disturbances in Iraq and Palestine. Reports from BBC Arabic – and

BBC Persian – regularly find their way to Anglophone audiences watching standard BBC reports on television

or the web, which will be elaborated on later.

The increased requirements for Middle Eastern and Central Asian news gathering at the BBC following

September 11th and the 2003 Iraq invasion caused the network to look into innovative news gathering policies in

those regions. A “logistical and technological cooperation” agreement exists between the BBC and Al Jazeera103

that allows the former to use the latter's facilities for financial compensation. Currently, the BBC retains a strong

following among news professionals and news audiences in the Middle East104. Writing in 1991, Muhammad

Ayish noted the popularity of BBC news programs within the Arab world105. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq,

the ratings of the BBC's overseas network, BBC World, grew due to a perceived difference in news coverage

between them and American networks106:“The BBC won new viewers [in 2003], often at the expense of US news organizations such as CNN that were

98 Jennie Yabroff, “Notes on the Death of Neda Agha-Soltan,” Newsweek, June 24, 2009, 99 Said, 129-30.100Rinnawi, 26.101Mohammed El-Naway and Adel Iskandar, Al-Jazeera: How the Free Arab News Network Scooped the World and

Changed the Middle East (Boulder: Westview, 2002), p. 40.102The Al-Jazeera Effect, 31.103Beyond the Front Lines, 16.104Hegemonic No More, 606.105Mohammed Ayish, “Foreign Voices as People's Choices: BBC Popularity in the Arab World,” Middle Eastern Studies,

vol. 27, no. 3 (July 1991), p. 374-389.106ibid., 608.

36

perceived as being biased. In fact, the Turkish audience's move away from reliance on US news media was not unique.

During the war, BBC World's ratings increased 28% in the US, with its programs being watched in 662,000 US households.

Around the globe, BBC World reaches 254 million homes in 200 countries. BBC radio broadcasts are translated into 43

languages and reach 150 million listeners, and the BBC's online news, also in 43 languages, attracted 200 million page

views (58 million from the United States) during March 2003. On just the first day of the war, the BBC News web site had

33 million page views and received more than 27,000 emails. This surge took place while “the Beeb” was drawing political

fire from both the left and the right (usually a good sign). It was called the “Blair-Bush Corporation” by some and “The

Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation” by others.”

Part of the BBC's news gathering methods during Iraq was an increased reliance on user-generated

content that would be very similar to what they would use in 2009. However, BBC News head Peter Horrocks

has stated in 2008 that the use of user-generated content by the network was still in its infancy107.

The use of user-generated content in one pre-2009 BBC news story has been examined in depth by the

network. In a Harvard University report, BBC World Service Director Richard Sambrook detailed his network's

use of user-generated content while covering the July 7th London tube bombings108. Within six hours of the

attacks, the network had received 20 amateur videos, 1000 photographs, 4000 SMS messages and 20,000 emails

documenting the attacks and their aftermath. In Sambrook's words, the main BBC July 8 th evening newscast

“began with a package edited entirely from video sent in by viewers” and the network “crossed a rubicon” in

journalistic methods as a result109. The wide availability of cheap, relatively advanced camera phones and the

BBC's willingness to air user-generated content meant a variety of footage from the scene became available for

worldwide airing. While this pattern reoccurred on a larger scale in 2009 Tehran, it is not without a price –

Sambrook recognizes that the BBC's relationship with its viewers is changing. More importantly for journalists,

3000 BBC jobs were cut in 2007 while the network began to rely more heavily on user-generated content.

Writing in 1987, Philip Schlesinger analyzed the BBC's foreign news coverage in a pre-internet age. His

study offers an invaluable glimpse into the BBC's corporate structure, which remains much the same in 2009 as

1987110. One obvious difference is the consideration of arrival times of foreign film and Eurovision link-ups,

which have become irrelevant in the age of high-quality digital video:“The morning meetings [of the BBC] begin to address a definite agenda. This is the News Diary, a document which lists

home and foreign news stories which are thought to be newsworthy. Each service has its own diary. They are separately

compiled overnight at Radio News, and in the late evening at Television News. The diary gives information on the

availability of reporting staff at home and abroad; it lists the times at which circuits are available for feeding in reports from

home and foreign correspondents, and reporters in various parts of the British Isles. The Television News diary contains a

lot of detail about the arrival times of film from abroad, satellites and Eurovision link-ups. The diaries have two distinct

107Jose Alberto Garcia Aviles, “'Citizen Journalism' in European Television Websites,” presentation, 2008.108Richard Sambrook, Citizen Journalism and the BBC, Nieman Report, Harvard University,

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100542 (Accessed January 7, 2010).109ibid.110Philip Schlesinger, Putting “Reality” Together: BBC News (Taylor & Francis, 1987), p. 50.

37

sections: Home and Foreign. In both services, home news stories, which are generally far more numerous than foreign

stories, are considered first.”

The basic foreign reporting setup of both BBC and Al Jazeera English was detailed by Claude Moisy in

1996111. According to Moisy, approximately 40 bureaus with 70 total correspondents operated on the BBC's

behalf outside of the United Kingdom for both radio and television.

Meanwhile, the BBC's foreign reporting is frequently criticized from multiple fronts. The Iranian

government has been a vociferous critic of the BBC. In 2009, Ethiopian tour operators launched an anti-BBC

campaign alleging that the BBC news' recycling of 1984 famine footage was hurting the country's tourism

industry112. Criticism has been mounted against the BBC's coverage of the 2004/2005 tsunami in Indonesia by

Scott Downman, who argued that aggressive BBC and CNN reporters worsened the situation of already

traumatized Indonesians in Banda Aceh through “ill-considered disaster journalism.”113 Allegations of an anti-

Indian bias were made due to the wording of reports about the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks114. In 2009,

allegations were made of bias in the BBC science stories concerning climate change, genetically-modified foods

and the MMR vaccine115.

However, most criticism of BBC foreign reporting has taken place in the context of the Israeli-Arab

conflict. Allegations have been made of BBC coverage taking a consistent pro-Palestinian or pro-Arab bias.

These allegations led to the commissioning of 2004's Balen Report, a document written by senior BBC journalist

Malcolm Balen for Sambrook analyzing the network's coverage of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The BBC later

refused to release the Balen Report to the public, arguing it fell outside of Freedom of Information Act

jurisdiction. The BBC spent approximately GBP200,000 blocking release of the document116.

Allegations have also been made of the BBC having a systemic pro-Israeli bias in stories relating to the

Israeli-Arab conflict. Writing in 2003, Mohammed Samaana detailed claims that the BBC ignored Palestinian

111Claude Moisy, The Foreign News Flow in the Information Age: Will the Americans Still See the World When They Travel on the Infobahn?, Joan Shorenstein Center for Press Politics and Public Policy / Harvard University, November 1996, http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/publications/papers/discussion_papers/d23_moisy.pdf, p. 96. (Accessed January 7, 2010).

112Ash Smyth, “Ethiopians Attack BBC's Doom-laden Coverage,” The First Post, November 24, 2009, http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/56503,news-comment,news-politics,ethiopians-attack-bbcs-doom-laden-coverage (Accessed January 7, 2010).

113Scott Downman, “”Swamped: The Tsunami Media Coverage in Banda Aceh – When Help is Not Helpful,” paper presented to the Journalism Education Conference, Griffith University, November 29 – December 2 2005, http://know.brr.go.id/dc/articles/20051129_Swamped_Tsunami_Media_Coverage_Banda_Aceh.pdf (Accessed January 7, 2010).

114Sheela Bhatt, “The BBC Cannot See the Difference Between a Criminal and a Terrorist,” Rediff India Abroad, December 14, 2008, http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/14mumterror-mj-akbar-slams-bbc-for-biased-coverage-of-mumbai-terror-attack.htm (Accessed January 7, 2010).

115Paul Revoir, “BBC Probes Bias in its Science Coverage,” Daily Mail, January 7, 2010, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241209/BBC-probes-bias-science-coverage.html (Accessed January 7, 2010).

116Michael Herman, “BBC Asks Court to Block Israel Report,” Times of London, March 27, 2007, http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article1575543.ece (Accessed January 7, 2010).

38

civilian casualties during the Second Intifada117. Similar charges were made by British watchdog group Arab

Media Watch. AMW's Sharif Nashashibi alleged that the BBC (and Al Jazeera) were consistently biased in

support of Israel and overwhelmingly relied on Israeli sources in a survey of 2009 news stories118. Although the

Balen Report is still not publicly available, the BBC has placed their editorial strategy guide for coverage of

Israel and the Palestinians online119.

A rich corpus of scholarship exists on Al Jazeera (“The Island” or “The Peninsula”), although most

focuses on the Arab-language parent network. Al Jazeera was founded in 1996 with a US$150 million grant from

Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, approximately one year after he deposed father Sheikh Khalifa bin

Hamad al-Thani as Emir. The Sandhurst-educated junior al-Thani initiated limited reforms upon his ascension120.

Al Jazeera appears to be, if not directly part of the reforms, closely related. Evidence suggests that al-Thani was

aiming to create a pan-Arab satellite news channel, “whether for financial gain, or from a desire to make political

capital over his long-term rivals the Saudis, or out of a genuine yearning for democratic reform” since August

1994121, when he unsuccessfully attempted to lobby the yet-to-be-deposed elder al-Thani on the issue. When Al

Jazeera launched in 1996, the bulk of the network's staff was recruited from the aborted BBC Arabic television

service of the 1990s. A collaborative satellite news station jointly operated by the BBC and the Saudi Arabian

government's Orbit Satellite service, the 1990s BBC Arabic was founded in 1994. However, the network was

effectively forced to stop broadcasting in the face of strenuous Saudi protests following an appearance by Saudi

Islamist exile Muhammad al-Mas'ari122 and complaints over the popular Panorama documentary show on the

BBC's English-language mother service airing an episode on alleged Saudi human rights abuses. Al-Mas'ari's

appearance triggered a series of mysterious “technical errors” on the network, and accusations flew back and

forth between the BBC and Orbit's backers among the Saudi royal family. BBC Arabic abruptly went off the air

in April 1996, replaced by the Disney Channel on Orbit's channel roster. Out of the approximately 250

employees of the 1990s BBC Arabic service, 120 relocated to Qatar and signed contracts with Al Jazeera123. A

replacement BBC Arabic satellite television service was founded several years later under Hokkam El Sokkari

that functions as a competitor to Al Jazeera.

117Mohammed Samaana, “Is the BBC Taking Sides in the Middle East?,” Fortnight, November 2003, http://www.jstor.org/pss/25561004 (Accessed January 7, 2010).

118Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi, “BBC & Al Jazeera Coverage of Israeli-Palestinian Violence,” Arab Media Watch policy paper, 2009, http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/Portals/0/documents/media/20090609BBCAlJazeeraCoverageOfIsrPalViolence.pdf (accessed January 7, 2010).

119Interestingly, the document – which refers almost entirely to the Israeli-Arab situation, is labeled with the misnomer “Middle East Strategy.” BBC News Management, “Editorial Coverage of Israel and the Palestinians,” BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/our_work/govs/bbcnews_middleeast_strategy.pdf (accessed January 7, 2010).

120Hugh Miles, Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That is Challenging the West (New York: Grove Press, 2005), p. 14, 29.

121ibid, p. 28.122ibid, p. 31.123ibid, p. 33.

39

As the first “Western”-style news channel in the Arab world, Al Jazeera quickly gained a considerable

viewership – first a minority, than a plurality – throughout the Middle East, Maghreb and Arab diaspora. Several

popular shows began airing on the network, including news shows Al Itidjah Al Mouakass (“The Opposite

Direction”) and Al Irshad (“The Long View”) and the extremely popular Muslim religious program Ash Sharia

w'Al Hayat (“Sharia and Life”). Presenters, including Yosri Fouda, Faisal al-Kasim and Sami Haddad, became

genuine celebrities in the Arab world. Al Jazeera inked a series of ambitious distribution and content-sharing

deals in the 1990s, including a video sharing deal with state-run Iranian television and a distribution agreement

with an Israeli cable television operator alongside the standard European, South Asian and North American

distribution deals124. Audaciously, an ambitious advertising blitz was undertaken for Al Jazeera's Arabic-language

programming in China – network chiefs viewed Xinjiang's Uighur Muslim population as a potential audience125.

Al Jazeera's decision to air extended video statements by Osama bin Laden and to broadcast live from

Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the months following September 11th led to criticism of the network and

intervention from foreign governments. The New York Daily News suggested that the network was “more

dangerous than Anthrax”126 and employees of Al Jazeera's London bureau appear to have been tracked by MI5127.

In November of 2001, Al Jazeera's Kabul bureau was destroyed by an American missile strike.

This pattern repeated itself in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the months prior to the invasion, the network

was the target of a disinformation campaign from Pentagon-hired consultants The Rendon Group. Once the war

was underway, Al Jazeera's Baghdad bureau was again destroyed by an American missile strike – reporter Tayeq

Ayyoub was killed. Simultaneously, Al Jazeera correspondents covering the New York Stock Exchange and

NASDAQ found their credentials revoked under the rubric of “security reasons.” In 2004, a leaked British memo

transcribing a conference between Tony Blair and George W. Bush revealed that the American President had

been seriously considering an aerial strike on Al Jazeera's Qatar headquarters in April 2004128.

Despite all this, or perhaps because of it, an English-language version of Al Jazeera was launched in

November 2006. Titled Al Jazeera English, the network bills itself as “the world's first global English language

news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East”129 and tells viewers that it is the “Voice of the South” and

is “reversing the North to South flow of information,” in a conscious homage to post-Fanon and post-Nasser

Third Worldist theory. Al Jazeera English launched with an on-screen staff that included Sir David Frost, Riz

Khan and American Nightline correspondent Dave Marash. Marash left Al Jazeera English after vocally

124ibid., p 61.125ibid., p 171.126ibid., p 149.127ibid., p. 144.128NBC News, “U.K. Charges Official Over Leak Memo,” msnbc.com, November 22, 2005,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10153489/ (Accessed January 10, 2009).129Al Jazeera English Corporate Profile, english.aljazeera.net,

http://english.aljazeera.net/aboutus/2006/11/2008525185555444449.html (Accessed January 10, 2009).

40

criticizing the station in 2008130.

As of writing, Al Jazeera English is available worldwide via satellite and has signed extensive cable

television distribution agreements throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. North America, however, has

remained a challenge in Al Jazeera English's attempts to gain distribution in the Anglophone world. Canadian

government permission for satellite television distributors to rebroadcast Al Jazeera English was only granted in

2009 and has not been enacted as of publication time131. In the United States, cable distribution is limited to

several small cable networks in Vermont, Ohio and Washington DC. The country's largest cable providers,

Comcast and Time-Warner, have opted not to air the channel. The same goes for major satellite television

providers DirecTV and Dish, although limited Al Jazeera English broadcasting has been repackaged on

American satellite network Link TV. Instead, Al Jazeera English has embarked on an ambitious internet-based

distribution strategy for their station in a bid to reach North American audiences. All shows and news reports are

aired in full on YouTube and the station broadcasts live 24/7 over the LiveStation service and Al Jazeera

English's web site132.

Numerous books have been written on Al Jazeera English's Arabic mother channel. El-Nawawy and

Iskandar's was the first to be released, in 2002. Written well before the launch of Al Jazeera English, the book's

mention of future English-language extension plans is short and vague. Generally well received133, the focus of

the text stays on station operations and Al Jazeera's evolution throughout the 1990s. Although attention is paid to

the station's many clashes with Arab governments, the thorny (and ambiguous) relationship between Al Jazeera

and the Qatari government is only briefly examined. Where Al Jazeera is especially helpful is in its details of

government clashes, especially the thorny relationship between Algeria and the network. In a subsequent 2005

journal article, Iskandar proposes that while al-Jazeera still represents “alterity” in the “West,” the network's

very success has negated its alternative and subaltern status within the Arab world134.

The second long-form work released on the topic also dates from 2005. Miles has the advantage of

having been released after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when the network's reportage galvanized high ratings

throughout the Arab world - and simultaneously gained criticism in the English-speaking world. A British citizen

who grew up in Saudi Arabia and Libya135, Miles' strength lies in extensive interviews including spokesperson

Jihad Ballout (who would later defect to rival Al Arabiyya), London bureau director Muftah al-Suwaida, hosts

130Brian Stelter, “American Anchor Quits Al Jazeera,” New York Times, March 27, 2008, http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/american-anchor-quits-al-jazeera/ (Accessed January 10, 2009).

131Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, “Al-Jazeera English Gets CRTC Approval,” CBC News, November 26, 2009, http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/11/26/al-jazeera.html (Accessed January 10, 2009).

132“I Want Al Jazeera,” iwantaje.net, http://www.iwantaje.net/watch (Accessed January 10, 2009).133For a representative review, see Ziauddin Sardar, “A Voice of Reason,” The New Statesman, September 9, 2002,

http://www.newstatesman.com/200209090038 (accessed January 11, 2009).134Adel Iskandar, “Is Al Jazeera Alternative? Mainstreaming Alterity and Assimilating Discourses of Dissent,”

Transnational Broadcasting Studies 15, http://www.tbsjournal.com/Iskandar.html (accessed January 11, 2009).135Terry Gross, “Inside Al-Jazeera, As It Plans An English Version,” Fresh Air, National Public Radio (USA), March 14,

2005, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4533916 (accessed January 11, 2009).

41

Yosri Fouda, Faisal al-Qasim and Qatari politicians such as Interior Minister Prince Nayif al-Thani. As a result

of these interviews, intriguing anecdotes are raised (such as the divisive appeal of female host Luna Shubel

among Arab women and the question of whether journalistic ethics include not tipping off authorities to the

physical location of terrorists).

Rinnawi argues that Al Jazeera has served as a bonding mechanism for an “instant nationalism” in the

Arab world, offering an updated conception of pan-Arabism through shared media within a context heavily

informed by Benedict Anderson and Marshall McLuhan136. Marc Lynch has written extensively on his research

into the effect of Al Jazeera programming on Arab public opinion in the 2003 Iraq invasion and their reflection

of an increasingly diversified sphere of public opinion in the Arab world137. In Seib's Beyond the Front Lines, the

content-sharing agreement signed between the BBC and Al Jazeera is analyzed as a sign of diminishing

parochialism due to the implicit logistical and technological cooperation required138. Writing later in The Al-

Jazeera Effect, Seib puts forward the hypothesis that Al Jazeera's popularity among Arabic-speaking viewers

takes place in the context of an increasingly sophisticated use of technology by regional television stations (web

sites, interactive content) and a battle in the public diplomacy realm by unlikely players such as Spain and

Russia139. Most intriguingly, Seib's work expounds upon the pan-Arab hypothesis with a number of case studies

that contrast Al Jazeera's conceptualization of a shared Arab cultural sphere with the pan-Islamic narrative of

Saudi rival Al Resalah and the neo-Caliphate narrative expounded by jihadist websites140.

Miladi has emphasized the network's policy of mixing religious, secular, Muslim and Christian employees side-

by-side and placed them in “an emerging transnational Arab public sphere.”141 The question of Al Jazeera and

other networks such as Al Manar in the Arab diaspora was also examined by Sakr. Sakr argues that the

popularity of those channels have spurred European governments to create their own Arabic-language channels

due to the emergence of transnational media patterns among the Arab diaspora142.

Azran argues that Al Jazeera indicates an adoption of the 'Western'-oriented Liberal Commercial system

by Arab media and that the network exists in a state of 'Western'-'Eastern' 'in-betweenness' related to larger

trends of hybridization and transculturation143. Additional agreement is also found with Seib's hypothesis, with

content sharing agreements with CNN and ABC News cited that could be predecessors of Al Jazeera English. In

136Khalil Rinnawi, Instant Nationalism: McArabism, al-Jazeera and Transnational Media in the Arab World (Lanham: University Press of America, 2006).

137 Marc Lynch, Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today (New York: Columbia University, 2005).

138Seib, Beyond the Front Lines, 16.139The Al-Jazeera Effect, 32.140ibid., 29, 60.141Nouredinne Miladi, “Satellite TV News & the Arab Diaspora in Britain,” Journal of Migration Studies 32 no. 6 (August

2006), 949-955142Naomi Sakr, “Diversity & Diaspora: Arab Communities & Satellite Communication in Europe,” Global Media &

Communication 4(3), 277-295.143Tal Azran, “'Mirror, Mirror on the Wall': The Positioning Hypothesis,” Media and Communications, Traffic (January

2006), 140-156.

42

2005, Seib also detailed how wording in Arabic Al Jazeera stories (for instance, referring to the United States-led

coalition in Iraq as “invading forces” rather than the “forces of aggression” cited by other Arabic television

stations) helped to serve a diversifying market in the Arabic world and vastly increased the station's name

recognition while damaging its economic health144. Another of Seib's journal articles (in this case, one written for

the United States military) reframes Al Jazeera's stories in the context of the post-Huntington “Clash of

Civilizations” scenario. Seib accepts limited aspects of Huntington's claims, mainly those related to a shared idea

of “joint unity” in the Arab world rather than in the larger Muslim world. Al Jazeera is cited as an example of

how “clashes between civilizations can occur in ways other than armed conflict.” The claim is also put forward

the online internet news providers will be integral players in the creation of a new conception of pan-Arabism –

a process that will ultimately defuse 'civilizational conflicts' through diffusion in Seib's view145.

Three unusual studies of Al Jazeera's coverage are also worthy of mention. Balsom has analyzed the

station's reportage in terms of Qatari foreign policy and found intriguing evidence that Al Jazeera exists within a

conscious effort by Qatar to gain leverage against larger neighbors such as Iran and Saudi Arabia146. Auter, Arafa

and Al Jaber have conducted research into the parasocial identification of Al Jazeera viewers with anchors,

correspondents and writers across national lines147. Cherribi analyzed Al Jazeera's reportage on the discourse of

veil wearing in France and came to the conclusion that the network's vaunted motto of “the opinion and the other

opinion” was cover for promotion of a shared supranational identity – but a supranational pan-Muslim identity

as opposed to the pan-Arab community of Seib and Lynch148.

Limited literature exits on Al-Jazeera English. Owen has noted the contrast between Al Jazeera English's

luring of high-profile personalities such as Sir David Front and the network's inability to find a cable distributor

in the United States149. Tony Burman, the network's managing director as of 2009, detailed Al Jazeera English's

adoption of the “global south” discourse and argued that the network consciously makes an effort to adopt a

third-worldist ideology in their coverage of issues150. McKelvey argues that the network has accumulated

“radical-chic allure” through an approach to news coverage that parallels CNN's 24-hour breaking news channel

Headline News, only with a slant towards covering obscure news stories. McKelvey also raises concerns over Al

Jazeera English's editorial independence from their parent, arguing that past statements made by al-Thani and the

station's Doha headquarters are indicators of a belief in “Doha being the center of the world.”151

144Philip Seib, “Hegemonic No More: Western Media, the Rise of al-Jazeera & the Influence of Diverse Voices,” International Studies Review 7 (2005), 601-612.

145Philip Seib, “The News Media and the 'Clash of Civilizations,' Parameters (2004/5), 79-81.146Ed Balsom, “Beyond Schlock and Awe – Qatar's New Worldview,” Queens Quarterly vol. 10 no. 2 (2006), 218-222.147Philip Auter, Mohamed Arafa, Khalid Al Jaber, “Identifying with Arabic Journalists,” Gazette 67(2).148Sam Cherribi, “From Baghdad to Paris: Al-Jazeera and the Veil,: Harvard International Journal of Press & Politics

2006 no. 11, p. 122-133.149John Owen (ed.), International News Reporting: Frontiers and Deadlines (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 113. 150Tony Burman, “World Perspectives: Ignoring the World at Our Peril,” International News Reporting, 131.151Tara McKelvey, “In Arabic in English in DC,” The American Prospect, December 17, 2006,

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=in_arabic_in_english_in_dc (accessed January 11, 2009).

43

El-Nawawy and Powers are currently conducting the Al-Jazeera English Research Project, a self-

described “purposive sample survey in Malaysia, Indonesia, Qatar, the United Kingdom and the United States to

analyze the demographics, worldviews, and cultural dispositions of viewers of [Al-Jazeera English]” to test the

possibility of Al Jazeera English functioning as a form of conciliatory media; the survey currently has an active

web presence152. The same researchers also conducted a study for the Knight Foundation that detailed Al Jazeera

English's possible function as a mediator in contentious news stories153 Research into Al Jazeera English's

conscious adoption of third-wordist viewpoints and “global south” memes has been conducted by Campbell,

who argues that the network has expanded the realm of discourse among Anglophone news channels as a result154. Evidence for the “global south” approach has also been provided by Sreeharsha, who has analyzed Al Jazeera

English's Latin America coverage and noted that their six-person Buenos Aires bureau has been responsible for

more than 600 stories in less than two years and has offered more dedicated Latin American coverage than either

CNN or Fox News155. The network's tenaciousness in coverage has been praised by Kaplan, a proponent of

Huntington's theories who found an “eclectic internationalism” at the heart of their reporting and the station's

knack at under reported stories while disdaining Al Jazeera English's “emerging developing world-bourgeoisie”

viewpoints156. Lamont has put forth the opinion that Al-Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English have begun to

diverge widely in terms of coverage and tone, with the Arabic version remaining superior157.

RT was founded as Russia Today as part of an ambitious public diplomacy blitz in 2005158 on behalf of

President Vladimir Putin through state news agency RIA Novosti. According to editor-in-chief Simonyan, Russia

Today aimed to “show my country the way I see it, the way my editorial team and the people with whom I work

[see it].”159 The Russian government took an active part in the network's launch that included easing the visa

process for 72 initial foreign employees and an undisclosed amount of funding that appeared to be more than

US$30 million in 2005 alone160. Russia Today's first week of broadcasting in December 2005 was plagued by

mysterious technical problems that forced the network off air for more than 48 hours. The network's official

152Al-Jazeera English Research Project, http://ajerp.com/ (accessed January 11, 2009).153Mohammed el-Nawawy, Shawn Powers, Mediating Conflict: Al-Jazeera English and the Possibility of a Concilatory

Media, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/projects/AJERP%20el%20Nawawy%20&%20Powers%20Nov%205.2.pdf (accessed January 11, 2009).

154Deborah Campbell, “The Most Hated Name in News,” The Walrus, October 2009, http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.10-media-the-most-hated-name-in-news/1/ (accessed January 11, 2009).

155Vinod Sreeharsha, “Al-Jazeera Focuses on Latin America,” The Miami Herald, November 4, 2008, http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/755094.html (Article unavailable online; internet cache used instead).

156Robert D. Kaplan, “Why I Love Al-Jazeera,” The Atlantic Monthly, October 2009, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/al-jazeera (Article viewed January 10, 2009).

157Ned Lamont, “Al Jazeera Goes Mainstream,” The Nation, December 14, 2007, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071231/lamont (Accessed January 10, 2009).

158“Corporate Profile,” Russia Today, http://rt.com/About_Us/Corporate_Profile.html (Accessed January 11, 2009).159Robert Parsons, “Russia: New International Channel Ready To Begin Broadcasting,” Agence France-Press via Radio

Free Europe/Radio Liberty, December 9, 2005, http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1063693.html (Accessed January 10, 2009).

160“Russia Today Built on Kremlin Ties,” Kommersant, September 16, 2005, http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=609300 (Accessed January 10, 2010).

44

statement was that hackers placed a virus on their computer network; outside observers floated the possibilities

of shoddy computer programming or even of the crash being a publicity stunt161. Russia Today was later

rebranded as RT.

Creative publicity stunts have been a hallmark of Russia Today/RT brand identity. Past stunts have

included the first ever live television broadcast from the North Pole in August 2007, renting two of the giant

television screens in New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve, hiring a busload of Russian “Father

Christmas” costumed characters to drive through the streets of New York and an aggressive advertising

campaign in London questioning the veracity of global warming theories162.

The network's Arabic service, Rusiya al-Yaum, began airing in 2007 with a mixed Russian- and Arabic-

speaking staff. Akram Khuzan, Al Jazeera's former Moscow bureau chief, initially headed the channel before

accepting a subsequent job in Syria. He was replaced by a Russian, Aidar Aganin, with a background at Russia's

Foreign Ministry. Simonyan was made the channel's formal EIC163. Rusiya al-Yaum's broadcasts are a mix of

original content, translated RT pieces, translated segments from Russian television and recycled content from

Arab broadcasters. The station has a cult following in the Arab world. Content often takes jabs at American

foreign and fiscal policy in Arab countries164. A Spanish-language service, also branded as RT, began airing in

December 2009165 - with the awkward slogan “El Ritmo de los Tempos.”

RT/Russia Today's coverage is characterized by several tropes. First is a pro-Kremlin editorial line that is

a far cry from the treatment of London or Doha granted by the BBC or Al Jazeera. Conflicts in ex-Soviet regions

such as Georgia, South Ossetia and Dagestan are framed in pro-Russian language166, with Russian soldiers

referred to as “peacekeepers” and the Russian military valorized167. Second is the network's aggressive courting

of figures marginalized by mainstream Anglophone media. Past RT guests have included ultra-right-wing British

MEP Nick Griffin, American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and education theorist Bill Ayers, subject of a minor

scandal in the 2008 American presidential election. Third is an aggressive anti-American/anti-European

Union/anti-non governmental organization slant in stories. In RT's world, the H1N1 virus168 and the European

161Anna Arutunyan, “Russia Today Glitch A Break-In Or PR Stunt?,” Moscow News, December 14, 2005.162Luke Harding, “Russia Today Launches First UK Ad Blitz,” The Guardian, December 18, 2009,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/18/russia-today-propaganda-ad-blitz (Accessed January 11, 2010).163Anne-Birte Stensgaard, “Top Appointments at Rusiya al-Yaum TV Channel,” AMEinfo.com, December 30, 2007,

http://www.ameinfo.com/142717.html (Accessed January 11, 2010).164Charles Ganske, “Rusiya Al-Yaum,” Discovery Institute, July 26, 2007,

http://www.russiablog.org/2007/07/russia_today_launches_satellit.php (Accessed January 11, 2010).165“Russia Today TV Channel Launches Spanish Broadcasting,” RIA Novosti, December 28, 2009,

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20091228/157403656.html (Accessed January 11, 2010).166Example, see “Russia Sinks Georgian Boat After Attack,” RT, August 11, 2008, http://rt.com/Top_News/2008-08-

11/Russia_sinks_Georgian_boat_after_attack.html (Accessed January 11, 2010) or “North Caucasus Militants 'Should Be Physically Destroyed,' RT, January 8, 2010, http://rt.com/Politics/2010-01-08/russia-terrorism-north-caucasus.html (Accessed January 11, 2010).

167Example, see “Taking a Shot At It: Russian Leader Gives Machine Gun a Good Workout,” RT, January 14, 2010, http://rt.com/Best_Videos/2010-01-14/medvedev-drives-combat-vehicle.html (Accessed January 14, 2010).

168“The Reality Behind the Swine Flu Conspiracy,” RT, November 26, 2009, http://rt.com/Politics/2009-11-26/reality-

45

Union169 are nefarious conspiracies and the United States ripe for socialist revolution170.

Despite RT/Russia Today's editorial slant and government backing, the most interesting thing about them

is their aesthetics. News pieces make use of hip-hop and loud rock for instrumentals and magazine segments can

often be shockingly informal171. Production values often appear rushed and impromptu, which lends the network

an idiosyncratic feel. While Anglophone Russians and Russian-descended individuals in the diaspora are

mentioned, there are few attempts to forge and solidify collective identity a la Al Jazeera English. While the

network is the latest in a long tradition of government-funded news stations serving as soft propaganda (see pre-

1989 Radio Free Europe/Free Liberty and the Nasser-era Sawt Al Arab in Egypt), their general approach can be

compared less to Ross' epistemic merit model of propaganda and more to that of a newly founded daily

newspaper. While an argument may be made that some sort of regional bonding takes place through the network,

RT is there to signify a Russian presence more than anything else.

Brown has identified RT/Russia Today in the context of post-Soviet attempts by Russia to enhance their

overseas image after several years of laggard public diplomacy172. Simultaneously, Owen has cited RT/Russia

Today as one of the best examples of internet distribution for a 24-hour Anglophone news channel173. Writing for

the University of Southern California's Institute on Public Diplomacy, Cull has simultaneously praised the

channel for its “fascinating window on Russia's view of the world” while disdaining what he called the

“unmistakable tone of advocacy for the state position.”174

The most notable factor in all prior literature on the three networks is the relative lack of emphasis on the

effect of the internet on news dissemination, framing, sourcing and distribution. Of course, exceptions such as

Owen, Seib and the rich vein of online literature exist. Nonetheless, the Middle East is particularly vulnerable to

widespread changes in foreign media portrayal due to the internet. Social media such as YouTube and Twitter

forces a redefinition of the traditional journalist-publication/network partnership that allows the Middle Eastern

public (or at least that of a certain socioeconomic and geographic class) a vastly increased ability to assert their

own narrative. It is the author's hope that additional systematic studies will be conducted of regional media in the

future to reflect the changes wrought since 2007.

swine-flu-conspiracy.html (Accessed January 15, 2010).169“European Union Gets Medieval With Ultra-secret Elections,” RT, November 20, 2009, http://rt.com/Politics/2009-11-

20/european-union-medieval-elections.html (Accessed January 15, 2010).170“We Have to Prepare for Socialist Revolution in US – Economist,” RT, January 3, 2010, http://rt.com/Politics/2010-01-

03/socialist-revolution-united-states.html (Accessed January 15, 2010).171Stephen Heyman, “A Voice of Mother Russia, in English,” New York Times, May 18, 2008,

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/arts/television/18heym.html (Accessed January 15, 2010).172John Brown, “Public Diplomacy as a Global Phenomenon, 2006: An Internet-Based Overview of the English-Language

World Media,” Place Branding & Public Diplomacy, 2007 (3), 180.173Owen, 114.174Nicholas J. Cull, “Russia Today: Views From My Hotel Room,” USC Center on Public Diplomacy Newswire, October

30, 2008, http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/newsroom/pdblog_detail/russia_today_views_from_my_hotel_room/ (Accessed January 15, 2010).

46

BBC

The BBC began coverage of the Agha-Soltan story in a June 22, 2009 news piece, timemarked 18:08

GMT entitled “Death video woman 'targeted by militia'.”175 The story consisted of (surprisingly, at this early

stage) an interview with fiancee Makan originally aired on BBC Persian. Web viewers saw Makan's testimony

translated into English, accompanied by photos both of Agha-Soltan and reputed gravesites for demonstrators

created by the regime. Makan's testimony appears to implicate the Basij. However, it also contains the

apparently false narrative of her “just having stepped outside her car” that saturates early descriptions of her

death, echoing Panahi:“She was near the area, a few streets away, from where the main protests were taking place, near the Amir-Abad area. She

was with her music teacher, sitting in a car and stuck in traffic. She was feeling very tired and very hot. She got out of the

car for just for a few minutes.”

This story appeared in the context of a steady stream of stories focusing on the Iranian post-election

demonstrations' descent into violence. Other stories posted to the BBC website on June 22 include “Iranian

Views: Tension Rising” (a compilation of telephoned and emailed testimony from BBC viewers in Iran in

English), “Analysis: Iran Splits Widen” (illustrated by a graphic photo of demonstrators confronting riot cops in

Tehran), “Iran Asks BBC Reporter to Leave” (detailing the Islamic Republic's order that BBC Tehran

correspondent Jon Leyne leave the country) and “Iran Silences Street Protesters.”

In these early stories, a triangular narrative is established that contrasts the effusiveness of the

demonstrators with the regime's repression while simultaneously expressing a fascination with the new

electronic tools that allowed news agencies access to user-generated content.

A search of the BBC's Iran coverage between June 20 – June 22, using Google.com to search the site

news.bbc.co.uk for keyword “Iran” uncovered 45 stories directly related to Iran176. Of these 45 stories, 16 of

them contained either mobile camera phone footage, email/telephone calls from Iranians or pictures taken by

Iranian citizens and uploaded to the internet – almost one-third of the total. This count includes stories that

consisted of uploads of BBC News television stories (for example,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111098.stm) that also include content of the criteria listed above.

In these stories, an emerging vocabulary and framing is visible that would color most of the BBC's

subsequent coverage of Agha-Soltan. Demonstrators are usually referred to as “protesters,” a heavy emphasis is

put on Iranian user-generated content sent to both the BBC and BBC Persian and coverage of behind-the-scene

government mechanisms in Iran is eschewed in favor of a framing that emphasizes the volatility and violence of

the street protests.

175BBC News, “Death Video Woman 'Targeted By Militia',” BBC News, June 22, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8113552.stm (Accessed January 21, 2010).

176This search, conducted on January 21, 2010, resulted in a total of 66 hits. However, 21 were removed from the final count due to only mentioning Iran in sidebars, story scrolls or peripheral columns.

47

These stories also show the appearance of one of the most common tropes in the BBC's coverage of the

Iranian demonstrations, the “2009-as-1979 scenario.” The 2009-as-1979 scenario was perfectly articulated in a

commentary piece by BBC world affairs editor John Simpson177:“The last time I found myself in Valy Asr avenue in Tehran, shouldering my way through a shouting, sweating, half-excited,

half-frightened crowd - in order to get television pictures of a fire that was sending up a column of choking black smoke

into the sky - it was 1979 and I was 30 years younger. Things have changed a bit now, of course. Back then, people did not

have mobile phones to hold up in the air and take snapshots or videos of what was going on and send them round the world.

There were not nearly so many young women among the demonstrators. Then, people did not automatically spot who I

worked for. Now, vast numbers of people in Tehran watch BBC television news broadcasts in English and Persian, and it is

hard to get through a crowd without being spotted. […] Of course, even to suggest there might be any similarities at all with

the revolution of 1979 enrages the government here. But if you remember those days as well as I do, you can spot the

parallels at once.”

Simpson's testimony also clearly refers to the above mentioned fascination with new technologies and, in

passing, the feminist framing mentioned prior. In these early reports, the free and heavy use of camera phone

footage and first-person testimony is integrated seamlessly into reports from Tehran. First-person reports are

given from the protests Agha-Soltan attended on the 20th that claim “riot police and plain clothes guards” were

opening fire on protesters with live ammunition178:“I was part of the protest in Valiasr Square. When we got there, there were riot police and plain clothes guards shooting at

people, I could see that people had been shot and were on the ground. There were also water cannons. We decided to head

towards Azadi Square, and there were guards on motorbikes attacking people with batons. There were thousands of people

out on the streets the police were using tear gas - the whole experience was terrifying. Towhid (Unity) Square looked like a

battle ground. There were lots of female protesters - I saw a guard attack one women and then she went back up to him and

grabbed him by the collar and said 'why are you doing this? Are you not an Iranian?' - he was totally disarmed and didn't

know what to do but her actions stopped him. There were no ambulances around - people were helping each other - helping

the wounded - taking them to safety away from further attacks.” -Siavash, Tehran, Iran

Regular news reports of the unrest continue with the same themes. An unnamed BBC correspondent

wrote a first-person piece on police, Revolutionary Guard and Basij deployments in downtown Tehran179. This

correspondent contrasted the fact that shops were open and traffic flowing largely unhindered with the

demonstrations throughout Tehran and wrote that “some of the [pedestrians] looked as if they were waiting for

some leadership, for a demonstration that they could join.” In a June 22 piece on the Islamic Republic's effort to

monitor mobile phone transmissions180, technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones takes note of the fact that

177John Simpson, “Iranian Protest Parallels With 1979,” From Our Own Correspondent, BBC, June 20, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8109101.stm (Accessed January 21, 2010).

178“Your Reaction to Iranian Protests,” Have Your Say, BBC, June 20, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8111009.stm (Accessed January 21, 2010).

179“BBC Eyewitness: 'Security Everywhere,” BBC, June 20, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111152.stm (Accessed January 21, 2010).

180Rory Cellan-Jones, “Hi-Tech Helps Iranian Monitoring,” BBC, June 22, 2009,

48

women's rights activists found their SMS messages and instant messages under surveillance before the election.

Over the following 90 days, the BBC narrative of Agha-Soltan's death – and of the larger context of

Iranian post-election discord – continued to evolve. 23 BBC stories discussed Agha-Sultan's death between June

23rd and September 22nd 2009, out of a total of 229 counted through a Google.com search of the site

news.bbc.co.uk for keyword “Iran” filtered to remove duplicate stories and extraneous stories (ie sports stories

that mentioned Iran once in passing). The implication – that almost 10% of the BBC's Iranian coverage in sum

during that 90-day period mentioned Agha-Soltan – is staggering. These references ranged from short mentions

of Agha-Soltan's death (ie a user-sent email claiming that “Iranian news” reported Israeli intelligence killed

Agha-Soltan included in a roundup of user emails from Iran181) to nine articles focused on Agha-Soltan. During

this period, two specific BBC radio programs discussing Agha-Soltan were ported to the news.bbc.co.uk site.

On July 28, 2009, the BBC World Service radio program Digital Planet devoted a segment to user-

generated content from Iran182. The segment's introduction, presented by Gareth Mitchell, posits the BBC's use of

user-generated content as an inevitable response to censorious behavior by Iranian authorities. In Mitchell's

words, “you're a major news organization and you're covering the Iran story while the fallout continues after the

disputed election. The thing is, none of your correspondents are on the ground because they have been asked to

leave the country.” Mitchell uses this introduction to segue into an interview with BBC Persian staff including

interactive producer Azi Khatiri. While discussing the use of these social networks to cover the story, she

characterizes BBC Persian's aggressive use of user-generated content as a dilemma because “as a news

organization, we have to be accurate and correct. So we look at what is going on Twitter and we follow it up in

order to verify it. We have various contacts inside Iran we call up, to make sure, for example, a protest reported

as occurring at multiple locations actually happened. […] People take footage.”

Then Khatiri gets to the interesting part. The BBC producer states that “the very interesting thing that's

happened within these few weeks, if you like, is the massive use of mobile phones to capture video footage and

take pictures. We are flooded with them. We literally get hundreds on days when massive protests take place in

Iran. When someone tells us that something happened and we get 10 or 20 pieces of film coming in from mobile

phone footage that come in, it shows us that it really did happen and that it is the truth.” Mitchell asks Khatiri if

the user-generated content makers are representative of the larger Iranian population or if it is mostly the

younger generation. Khatiri asks Mitchell to consider the fact that 70% of the Iranian population is under 30

years old and that her older (Iranian) parents are also out on the street. Khatiri notes, however, that most footage

BBC Persian receives is from Tehran. She says she hears from listeners in small cities and towns that most

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8112550.stm (Accessed January 21, 2010).181“Iranian Views: 'Critical Times',” BBC News, June 25, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8118616.stm

(Accessed January 22, 2010).182An online magazine piece based on the segment is available at Dave Lee, “The Rise of Iran's Citizen Journalists,”

Digital Planet, BBC World Service, July 30, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176957.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010). Audio of the actual radio show can be found at Digital Planet, BBC World Service, July 28, 2009, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003r606 (Accessed January 22, 2010).

49

residents there support protesters, but that the security situation in small cities and towns does not allow

residents to protest in reasonable safety. In her words, “they are scared to come out.” Khatiri offers anecdotal

evidence that residents of some smaller towns have in fact traveled to Tehran.

Mitchell then switches to commentator Bill Thompson to discuss internet users finding news on Iran by

Twitter and other social networks. He notes that there is no validation or verification for users of news found

online and that the role of news organizations (including, of course, the BBC) is to verify and validate that

information for their audience. Thompson notes that in complex political situations when lives are at risk,

traditional news organizations have to “get the balance right” in verifying online information.

The online version of this segment focuses much more on Agha Soltan. Online, the BBC's Dave Lee

notes183:

“It has been 40 days since Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman, was killed during an anti-government protest in

Tehran. Within hours, graphic scenes showing her final seconds of life dominated newspapers and bulletins over the world.

Yet this moment wasn't recorded by a professional journalist working for a big news organisation. Instead, a regular

bystander captured the powerful footage and uploaded it online. The clip of Agha-Soltan's death is just one of hundreds of

pieces of citizen journalism to come from Iran in the past few months. With journalists forced to stay in their hotel rooms, or

even leave the country, these amateur recordings quickly became the only means of getting uncensored news out of Tehran.”

Again, the iconic nature of the Agha-Soltan video is emphasized and it is again mentioned that it is the

result of user-generated footage. The second show was the July 30, 2009 edition of BBC Radio 4's Today184. In a

3:31 segment, Leyne interviews Agha Soltan's mother, Hajar Rostami Motlagh, and asks questions about the

death of her daughter. In an introduction to the piece, presenter Sarah Montague describes Agha-Soltan as “the

young woman whose death was seen by millions around the world because of a video that was posted around the

internet. As a result, she has become a symbol of the opposition struggle there.” Radio 4's piece consisted of an

interview given by Leyne through an interpreter with the mother that was reused numerous times by the

network's English language services and BBC Persian. Leyne paraphrases the Iranian-language interview Soltan

gave. Agha-Soltan is described as having “just gone out for a piano lesson” and having “effectively just kind of

bumped into the demonstrations.” Agha-Soltan's involvement in the demonstrations is described by Leyne as the

result of “curiosity” and it is repeatedly mentioned that she spoke with her mother via mobile phone in the last

hours of her life. Leyne quotes the mother as saying that “Agha-Soltan was not politically active; she simply

went to look at the demonstration.” A translator quotes Agha Soltan's mother as saying that “this was all about

being young and feeling passionate about freedom. She wasn't political; she wasn't active in any party or group.

She didn't support any faction. Every other young Iranian was there and she was one of them.”

Leyne explains to listeners the Shi'ite Arbaeen mourning that was currently underway for Agha-Soltan

183ibid.184Jon Leyne, Today, BBC Radio 4, July 30, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8175000/8175771.stm

(Accessed January 22, 2010).

50

and how the Iranian government was forbidding attendees to participate. Leyne quotes the mother as saying she

is not “engaged in day-to-day politics, but is grateful for the outpouring of support from around the world. The

translator cites the mother as stating that “I want to thank politicians and leaders from every country, at all levels,

who remembered my child. Her death has been so painful and I can never describe my true feelings. But

knowing that the world has cried for her, that has comforted me. I am proud of her. The world has seen her as a

symbol and that makes me happy.” Montague notes that July 30's Arbaeen ceremony occurred at a time of

increased Iranian domestic criticism of the government for “things like the abuses going on in the prison there.”

Leyne notes that the criticism is coming not just from the opposition, but from conservative sectors that are

usually supportive of Ahmadinejad He notes the regular suspicious deaths that took place in Iranian prisons after

the 2009 election and notes that Ahmadinejad has released many protesters; Leyne implies this was a direct

result of internal pressure by these conservative elements.

The interview between Leyne and Motlagh was also ported to the internet in its entirety185, as well as

reframed in a separate, two minute and fifty-two second long version186. This version reveals additional nuances

that were missing from the Today treatment. Motlagh describes Agha-Soltan leaving the house and is translated

as saying “she left the house mid-afternoon. I couldn't join her, but said I would be in touch. I asked her what

was going on and she said the streets were full of people. I asked her to come back home and told her I was

worried about her being in the crowd. She said 'fine' and said she would come home soon.” Then, according to

Motlagh, Agha-Soltan said in a later phone call that she became “stuck” in the area of the street and that the last

people to speak to her besides Panahi were Soltan's aunt and uncle, who she spoke to on the phone. Motlagh then

describes finding out that Agha-Soltan was injured and rushing to the hospital. According to the translator,

Motlagh said “Mr. Panahi, his shirt was covered in blood. I wanted to know the truth; I know what [the hospital

staff] was telling me was wrong. They kept on telling me different things about where she had been shot. 15 or

20 minutes later, I learned my daughter was dead.” Leyne asks Motlagh if Agha-Soltan had been political before

that day, with the response that was later used on Today. Then, Motlagh's answer goes on to contain information

excised from the original, short Today piece: “She was very special. She finished high school and then got

married. Philosophy and theology were her favorite subjects. She was a spiritual person, she believed in God.

She loved music; you can't blame young people for wanting to go out and wanting to feel free.”

The following question from Leyne is an inquiry into Agha-Soltan's plans for the rest of her life.

According to the translated answer Rostami Motlagh gives, “young people have dreams. I can't tell you what

hers were. She had dreams like any other young person, but she was not given the chance to have hers come true.

But there was one dream she spoke about very openly – that she longed to become a mother. She used to ask me

185“Interview: Mother's Tribute to Neda,” BBC News, July 30, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176098.stm (Accessed January 30, 2010).

186Jon Leyne, “Mother's Tribute to Shot Iranian Woman,” BBC News, July 30, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176053.stm (Accessed January 30, 2010).

51

how it feels to be a mother, what it was like. For me, this was the most painful thing of all. She got married but

she never had a child. She lived with her husband but they separated after three years. For the past few years, she

was living with me.” At this point, this version of the interview cuts off.

However, the extended eight minute, three second interview that the BBC also posted to their website is

significantly different in its framing. Leyne is not credited in this piece (instead, it merely says that Rostami

Motlagh spoke with the BBC World Service) and an excised portion is available in the transcript that deals

directly with current Iranian politics in July 2009187. In the interview, Mostlagh gives her opinions on the Iranian

government's official investigation of his daughter's death, details on his meetings with Karroubi and a

subsequent interview for Etemad and his communications with Sohrab Arabi and Ashkan Sohrab, fellow parents

of children who died in the post-election protests.

It is not known whether the 8:03 version comprised the entirety of Rostami Motlagh's interview with the

BBC World Service. Inquiries to the BBC regarding this question were not answered at the time this paper was

written. But this interview does display the reframing of the Agha-Soltan narrative that took place around this

time. The edits of Rostami Motlagh's testimony, dictated by time considerations, nonetheless excised Agha

Soltan's death from the political context they were in. The further cutting of the Today show interview also

excised the fact that she was a divorcee and omitted much of her biographical information.

The second interview related to Agha-Soltan that was heavily used by the BBC, BBC Persian and BBC

World Service (along with the subsequent Agha-Soltan documentary) was with Hejazi, the doctor who treated

Agha-Soltan when she was shot. First aired on June 25, 2009, the original aired interview was a 19 minute long

conversation with correspondent Rachel Harvey188, who primarily reports from southeast Asia. Hejazi, who as

previously mentioned, was studying in Great Britain, speaks fluent English and there was no need for an

interpreter.

Harvey tells listeners that “one of the most striking images to come out of Iran in the last few turbulent

weeks was that of a young woman called Neda who was shot dead on the streets of Tehran. The images, which

were first broadcast on the internet and shown around the world, show Neda lying on the ground in a pool of

blood and two men bent over her, trying in vain to save her life. One of these man was Arash Hejazi.” Again

here, we see the BBC's ongoing personalization of Agha-Soltan by repeatedly referring to her by her first name.

The interview between Hejazi and Harvey takes place not in a news studio, but on a park bench – a pastoral

English scene. Hejazi is asked to describe the “turbulent events” by Harvey. He describes Agha-Soltan's death as

a “terrible thing” and explains the circumstances that led him, an English resident, to be in Tehran. This initial

account differs from the one given in the November BBC/PBS documentary:“We heard that there were things going on in the street nearby – protests going on, so we walked outside to take a look. We

187“Interview: Mother's Tribute to Neda.”188“Iran Doctor Tells of Neda's Death,” BBC News, June 25, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119713.stm (Accessed

January 30, 2010).

52

walked through an alley called Fusradi to the main street, Kareghar, where the protests were going on. The anti-riot police

were coming by motorcycle towards the crowd. While we were standing there, Neda and that man who was with her all the

time, who I thought was her father at the time because they were so close, and who I later heard was her music teacher, were

there among the crowd. Then everything turned crazy because the anti riot police threw tear gas at the people and the

motorcycles started going at people. Everyone ran towards the Fusradi alley, we too with my friends, and we ran to the other

end of the street, the intersection with Salahi Street – which can be found on the map if necessary. There, people were just

standing and didn't know what to do. Either to scatter and leave or wait to see what happens.

Harvey then interjects to remind viewers that Hejazi is a doctor, despite the fact that he is employed at a

publishing house in the United Kingdom. Hejazi interjects that he was a general practitioner in Iran before he

started his publishing house. He explains that her aorta and lung were hit by the bullet and claims Iranian

authorities did not perform an autopsy due to the speed of her burial. However, Hejazi assures Harvey he feels

the bullet came from the front and did not lead from her back. He said that the bullet “seemed to have blasted

inside her chest” and that blood exited from her mouth and nose in a strange fashion, leading him to believe the

lungs were hit as well. He says Agha-Soltan died in less than one minute. Hejazi said that he did not see the

direction the bullet was fired from due to the general disarray:

“Things went into chaos afterwards. The man started crying 'My Child! My Child!' - another thing giving me the

impression that he was her father. Then we heard the sound in front of us, had the impression it was from a rooftop. But a

few minutes later, because they [other bystanders] took the body and put it in a car when she died to put her in a hospital or

somewhere, they just went away. But afterwards, some people believed they actually took someone with a Basij card and

said he was on a motorcycle coming from the other way, hiding in the corner. Some people shouted that 'We got him!' Some

people went towards him, disarmed him and took his Basij member ID card. He said, he shouted 'I did not want to kill her! I

did not want to kill her!' People caught him and did not know what to do with him.”

Hejazi then explains how the crowd let the Basij member go in the ensuing chaos and says that he did

not personally know who the members of the crowd who captured the Basiji were. He notes members of the

crowd were also taking pictures of the militiaman. Then Hejazi explains that he went to his office to recover

from the trauma and to wash the copious blood from Agha-Soltan off his body: “I've seen people dying many times

before, it's my profession. I've seen people hit by bullets. While I was over her body, I did not think about anything other

than what a doctor has to do when he is faced by such a situation. But afterwards, I went to the bathroom, washed off the

blood, and just... started washing my hands compulsively. I do not know for how many minutes. I was appalled. When I

stood up and realized she was dead and there was nothing I could do, suddenly a fear of death overwhelmed me. I felt that

she was one meter away from me, that meter could have hit me. That guy, that person who shot her could still be there and it

was the first time in my life that I felt that fear of death. I felt so bad about myself because I had that fear, and shes dead,

and I'm fearing about myself. I had a profound sense of guilt that I could not save her, and now I was thinking about myself?

I could not sleep for three nights afterwards. The look in her eyes, she didn't have time to say anything. She just had a look

in her eyes, 'why did this happen?' A very innocent look. I was overwhelmed. I didn't go home that night. I went to my

father's home, I did not want to think about it.”

53

Hejazi then explains how he initially kept the trauma to himself. He claims he then told his parents what

happened once initial broadcasts of Agha-Soltan's death appeared on foreign television, which his family

watched. Harvey then discusses with Hejazi how Agha-Soltan's death (again referred to as Neda) footage has

become a rallying cry for protesters, and asks how he feels about it. Hejazi said that the simple fact that he

appeared in the death video was enough to force him to become a part of the opposition. He says that, in his

view, her death occurred because she was protesting for the right to vote and freedom of assembly that is

enshrined in the Iranian Constitution.

Then, Harvey asks Hejazi what he thinks of the possibility, promoted by the Iranian government, that

Agha-Soltan was killed by a stray bullet from the protesters. Hejazi denies this, saying that the protesters were

largely peaceful and that the government behaved violently during post-election protests. He states that Agha-

Soltan's death “was not collateral damage.” He then says that the government should persecute her killers and

asks why they did not allow her family to hold her funeral normally. Hejazi complains of a crackdown on

commemorations of her death and says that heard of a garbage truck dumping trash on memorial flowers for her.

In his words, “this is what enrages people.”

The remainder of the interview consists of Hejazi giving his evaluation of Iranian protest footage he saw

after his return to the United Kingdom. Then Harvey asks if he can envisage going back to Iran after threats

made to his safety by the Iranian government. Predictably enough, Hejazi says he cannot. Hejazi than says the

government will denounce everything he says and “put things on him” and states that he has never been in

politics and has never advocated anything but human rights. Then he rehashes what he saw, adds that the Basij

are armed and do not follow the rules of the police, and the interview concludes.

The abridged version of this interview aired on nightly news programs and ported to the internet189 lasts

for 2:23 and consists of edited footage from the Hejazi-Harvey conversation. It starts with “We heard a gunshot.

Neda was standing one meter away” with the “then” preceding the gunshot sentence edited out. It continues until

the line “she died in less then one minute,” where the excerpt then ends. In this short (< 3 minute) excerpt, Agha-

Soltan's death is treated in explicitly clinical terms.

During the June 23rd – September 22nd period, a number of the tropes previously mentioned in BBC's

Iran coverage reappeared. The first is the fixation on new technologies and user-generated content. A surprising

number of stories discuss this aspect. For instance:

• A segment on the BBC's television program on technology, Click190, focusing on “cyber wars in Iran” - a

process described by reporter Adel Shaygan as the “cat and mouse game over control of information

[that] has been raised significantly, with opponents of the regime trying to keep one step ahead of

189'She Died in Less Than a Minute,” BBC News, June 25, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119741.stm (Accessed February 19, 2010).

190Adel Shaygan, “Cyber Wars in Iran,” Click, BBC News, June 26, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8120858.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

54

government censorship.” YouTube and Twitter are mentioned, and telecommunication firm Nokia

Siemens is painted in a negative light for providing the Iranian government with a monitoring center

with the capability to track the entirety of the nation's web traffic. The online article based on the

segment features a graphic showing changes made to BBC Persian's signal to ensure it was received in

the Islamic Republic, thus aligning the BBC with the protesters.

• Flagship BBC program Newsnight ran an interview with Arianna Huffington, creator of the popular

American Huffington Post website and Anne McElvoy of the Evening Standard on Iranian user-

generated content. The segment, “Amateurs Key to Iran Reporting,” was largely supportive and

enthusiastic of the user-generated content being uploaded to the internet191.

• A web-only Newsnight piece by Siobhan Courtney published on July 3, 2009 took a contrarian note and

detailed the extraneous/incorrect information that had surfaced on the web in relation to Agha-Soltan and

the Tehran demonstrations. These included the previously mentioned incorrect picture of Agha-Soltan

and an incident when rival CNN aired YouTube demonstration footage that turned out to be four years

old. This story also contains a depiction of Agha-Soltan as the “Angel of Iran.”192

• The BBC republished a December 2008 piece on Iran's blogosphere in late June 2009. Titled, “Iran's

Bloggers Thrive Despite Blocks,” it describes the nation's active online community and government

censorship. A professor at Agha-Soltan's Islamic Azad University is quoted193.

• The BBC World Service prominently mentioned Iran's censorship of BBC Persian, Flickr and Twitter on

their own technology program, Digital Planet, in the context of a piece on “cyber-wars” worldwide194.

• An America-based BBC reporter covering the Silicon Valley beat, Maggie Shiels, ran a piece on

American “cyber-activists” such as Austin Heap and Daniel Colascione who set up proxy servers and

anti-filtering software for Iranian demonstrators195.

Most of the BBC's stories covering the Iranian events, Agha-Soltan and related stories in July/August of

2009 used ambiguous phrasings to describe the post-election scenario. These phrasings imply electoral

wrongdoing on the government's part, while acknowledging Ahmadinejad's victory and the subsequent violence.

A typical phrasing, written in August 2009, reads196:“More than 40 days have passed since the election result declared for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Many in Iran believe there

191 “Amateurs key to Iran reporting,” Newsnight, BBC News, July 1, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8127800.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

192Siobhan Courtney, “The Buzz – Neda – A Case of Mistaken Identity,” Newsnight, BBC News, July 3, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8129083.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

193“Iran's Bloggers Thrive Despite Blocks,” BBC News, December 15, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/middle_east/7782771.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

194Alka Marwaha, “What Rules Apply in Cyber-Wars?,” BBC World Service, June 24, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/technology/8114444.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

195Maggie Shiels, “On Iran's Virtual Front-Line,” BBC News, August 6, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8186761.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

196ibid.

55

was electoral fraud and opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi should have won. At least 30 people have died and

hundreds have been jailed for their part in protesting the outcome.”

During this period, the 2009-as-1979 trope reoccurred numerous times. Jim Muir, the former BBC

Tehran correspondent who is best known as the network's longtime Beirut specialist197, wrote an analysis piece

on July 4, 2009, that explicitly compared the two198:“Three weeks after Iran was shaken by its most serious unrest since the 1979 revolution, the dust seems to have settled.

Banned and broken up by force, the largely peaceful, massive protest demonstrations have fizzled out. The Guardian

Council - the powerful, appointed watchdog body - has formally endorsed the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose

unexpectedly large declared margin of victory triggered the protests. On the face of it, Tehran and other Iranian cities now

look much as they did before the 12 June elections. So does that mean everything is back to normal, and nothing has

changed? That seems unlikely.”

World Affairs editor Simpson made the parallel again on June 25, just five days after he last compared

2009 to 1979 – when writing about a Revolutionary Guard acquaintance he met in Iran who supports Mousavi,

he stated that “I think that these last weeks may turn out to be as momentous as the Islamic Revolution I

witnessed there 30 years ago.”199 The same trope occurs even in ordinary news articles. In a feature describing

the behavior of police, Revolutionary Guard and Basij during protests, Leyne notes disapprovingly that “it is

clear the leaders of the Islamic Republic have taken their own lessons from the way they took power in 1979.”200

During this time period, mention of the Islamic Republic's repressive policies seeped into not concerned

with Agha-Soltan or the post-election demonstrations. A BBC Radio 4 story on the growing ties between Iran

and Venezuela cites President Hugo Chavez as supporting Ahmadinejad in his post-election behavior (in a piece

with a parodying/editorializing title, “The Axis of Annoyance”)201. A story on rifts between Ahmadinejad- and

Mousavi- supporting mullahs in Iran contains the line “Others [Mullahs] are appalled at the way protest has been

suppressed, and worry that this has thoroughly discredited the Islamic Republic - and, by extension, the clerical

establishment.”202 A story on smugglers who run alcohol from Iraqi Kurdistan to Iran paints the smugglers as

heroes who defy stiff government policies up to and including the death penalty203. Incidentally, alcohol and drug

use in Iran is another reporting frame frequently used by the BBC – since 2000, literally dozens of segments and

197Peyvand Khorsandi, “Fast-Foward Man: Interview With Jim Muir,” iranian.com, September 26, 2009, http://www.iranian.com/PeyvandKhorsandi/2006/September/Muir/index.html (Accessed January 22, 2010).

198Jim Muir, “Analysis: Iran Crisis Set to Rage On,” BBC News, July 4, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8134484.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

199John Simpson, “Secret Voices of the New Iran,” BBC News, June 25, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8116825.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

200Jon Leyne, “Iran Learns From Past to Crush Dissent,” BBC News, July 9, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8143279.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

201Linda Pressly, “The 'Axis of Annoyance',” Crossing Continents, BBC Radio 4, August 13, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8195581.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

202Roger Hardy, “Iran Vote Dispute Moves to Seminary,” BBC News, July 7, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8137076.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

203Jiyar Gol, “Iran's Defiant Alcohol Smugglers,” BBC News, July 6, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8135510.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

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articles concerning the subject have been run on the BBC's website. This includes both original content and

ported radio/television segments. These range from pieces such as a translated BBC Persian discussion of the

traditional drinking of liquor during Nowruz (which, incidentally, equates the drinking of bootleg liquor by

Iranians with the manufacture of homemade LSD-based derivatives)204 to a Muir-penned piece over a spat over

the serving of wine at a state dinner by former President Mohammed Khatami in France205.

The BBC's framing and language when discussing Agha-Soltan and Iran in general underwent further

nuances in the remainder of 2009. Due to other stories replacing Agha-Soltan in the news cycle, her mentions

dropped sharply. Between September 23, 2009 and December 31, 2009, the BBC mentioned Agha-Soltan exactly

four times. One was in a “Faces of the Year” retrospective206 and the other three were Agha-Soltan-related news

stories. Notably, the BBC in this time period no longer refers to her in headlines or audio as “Neda,” and

reverted back to using her full name.

A November 11, 2009 story describes a scholarship established at Oxford University's Queen's College

in Agha-Soltan's honor207 via anonymous donations. The Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship was

established at Queen's College for graduate students of philosophy of Iranian nationality or descent; the

scholarship pays full graduate fees. The thrust of the BBC's story deals with a harsh public statement made by

the Iranian Embassy in London in reaction to the scholarship. The piece describes Agha-Soltan as “a women

killed during post-election unrest” and makes mention of allegations that Ahmadinejad rigged the polls early in

the story. Towards the end of the piece, it is mentioned that “eyewitnesses say a member of a government militia

shot her.”

The second piece dates from December 4, 2009. In it, the BBC describes how Agha-Soltan's family is

now publicly claiming that she was killed by Iranian security forces208. Illustrated with an Associated Press file

photo of Agha-Soltan and a still from one of the death videos, the story is built around a translated BBC Persian

telephone interview with father Ali Agha-Soltan. The translated BBC Persian excerpts quote the senior Agha-

Soltan as saying “I openly declare that no one, apart from the government, killed Neda. Her killer can only be

from the government” and “They've been avoiding responsibility from the very beginning. They want to put the

responsibility on other people... This is how the Islamic Republic behaves.” The article also mentions Iranian

claims that him and his wife accepted money from an American television network (presumably PBS, as cited

prior) that wanted to make a film about his daughter. Also mentioned in the piece is the fact that Agha-Soltan's

204Faraj Balafkan, “Iran's Festive Drink and Drugs Binge,” BBC Persian Service, March 27, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7963647.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

205Jim Muir, “”Wine Upsets Iranian Trip,” BBC News, March 29, 1999, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/307087.stm (Accessed January 22, 2010).

206“Faces of the Year,” BBC Magazine, BBC News, December 30, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8433845.stm (Accessed January 26, 2010).

207“Iran Denounces Oxford Scholarship,” BBC News, November 11, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8354372.stm (Accessed January 26, 2010).

208“Neda Agha-Soltan's Family Accuse Iran of Her Killing,” BBC News, December 4, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8396052.stm (Accessed January 26, 2010).

57

parents were detained and assaulted by Iranian security forces while attending an opposition demonstration in

November 2009. This fact never merited a separate article on the main BBC website. In this piece, Agha-Soltan's

death video was referred to as “iconic.”

But most interestingly, the BBC aired an hour-long documentary about Agha-Soltan's death in November

2009 on BBC 2. The documentary, aired on the This World program, was titled “An Iranian Martyr.”209 Full

video of the documentary was placed online, but is only viewable from the United Kingdom due to licensing

restrictions. However, numerous viewers placed copies on YouTube and on Torrent sites that are still accessible

as of January 2010.

“An Iranian Martyr” was produced and directed for This World by British firm Ronachan Films. Monica

Garnsey directed and Ros Farney and Angus MacQueen served as executive producers. With changes in

narration, voice-overs and structure, footage from “An Iranian Martyr” was reused by American public

television network PBS for a shorter, 40-minute documentary on their Frontline program210. Frontline's

documentary, “A Death in Tehran,” included additional content from Iranian-American pro-opposition website

tehranbureau.com as well. According to Ronachan's own description211,

“Neda Agha-Soltan became the international symbol of protest after the disputed elections in Iran in June 2009 when her

death was caught on a phone camera and uploaded onto the internet. The film pieces together the story of her death in the

context of the elections and the violence that followed. Driven by the astonishing footage of the protests caught on tens of

phone cameras, this is a moving story told by people who were there and whose lives have been forever altered since, “An

Iranian Martyr” attempts to understand what happened and how and why the Iranian Government responded in the way it

did - both at the time and in the months that followed.”

Ronachan's documentary is especially interesting because large portions were actually filmed in Tehran.

The film (in both its BBC 2 and PBS permutations) includes footage of Karegar Street and a host of other

downtown Tehran locations crucial to Agha-Soltan's death. Additional footage appears to have taken place

within Turkey and a Turkish fixer is listed, presumably for Iranians interviewed in the documentary who are now

in exile. However, no credits are given for Tehran fixers or translators is given for presumably obvious reasons212.

Interview subjects for “An Iranian Martyr” include Arash Hejazi, Hoda Agha-Soltan (Neda's sister),

Caspian Makan,a former reporter for Iranian state English-language news channel Press TV identified only by

the first name “Faranak,” Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor, journalist Delbar Tavakoli, Sina

209“An Iranian Martyr,” This World, BBC 2, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/8361837.stm (Accessed January 26, 2010).

210“A Death in Tehran,” Frontline, PBS, November 17, 2009, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/deathintehran/ (Accessed January 26, 2010).

211“Productions,” Ronachan Films, http://www.ronachanfilms.co.uk/Ronachan_site/Productions.html (Accessed January 26, 2010).

212This World credits (video only); credits for the American film are available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/deathintehran/etc/credits.html

58

Motalebi of BBC Persian, journalist Nader Mokhtari and former Iranian Deputy Prime Minister Mohsen

Sazegara. Footage for the documentary was gathered from disparate, eclectic sources. Apart from the on the

ground shots from Tehran, which is of uncertain provenance, archival footage varies widely. There are some

expected sources (Associated Press, BBC Archives, BBC Persian, CNN) and several unexpected (Caspian

Makan, Javad Moghimi Pasha, Press TV, FARS News Agency).

The BBC documentary describes Agha-Soltan as a theology student who “disagreed with the course”

and only lasted three terms, who then “married young and divorced” - a fact missing from most prior BBC

coverage of Agha-Soltan. Later, it is mentioned how neither she nor Makan intended to vote although she

changed her mind at the last minute to cast a ballot for Mousavi – which the BBC alleges she was unable to do

due to irregularities at her polling place. The program also implies that Agha-Soltan was far more political than

early portrayals indicated. The fact that she regularly attended demonstrations is bought up multiple times by

both Hoda Agha-Soltan and Makan.

Most of the interview time in “An Iranian Martyr” is with Makan and Hejazi. Makan, speaking through

an interpreter, speaks of Neda's last day alive, of finding out about her death and of his subsequent arrest. Makan

describes how Agha-Soltan “was involved in the protests from the beginning” and how he “never believed in this

protest and did not believe we could get anything from it.” The most interesting part came at the film's end, when

he finished out the documentary with descriptions of torture in Iran's Evin Prison:“They hit me more on my left side, because my right side was to the wall. They said the damage was irreparable and that I

faced four counts of executions. Some counts may be dropped but I would definitely face one of them. They told me I

would be executed.”

Hejazi gives some of the film's most compelling testimony. In the published transcript for the PBS

version213:Neda was among the crowd, was standing there among the crowd in front of the riot police. She was there with an

older man, and she was very close to us, so I noticed her. Sometimes she shouted, "Death to dictator" or something. And her

music teacher was trying to convince her that she should stay back, while she didn't really, she was very curious. [...] And

when we moved back into the alley, she and her music teacher started walking with us towards the end of the alley, 10 to 15

minutes before she was shot. [...]

That was when we hear the blast and from in front of us. And I- everybody was just a bit shocked. I asked, "What

was that? Was it a gunshot?" Another friend all of a sudden told me that, "Look at this girl. She's vomiting blood." And I

saw that she wasn't vomiting blood, it was blood gushing out of her chest. [...] The extent of the blood- the bleeding and the

pressure of the bleeding indicated instantly to me that her aorta was shot, and her lung, as well, because the blood had been

flowing through her nose and mouth, as well. So her lung was shot, as well, and she died very quickly.

Other interviewees in the film provided context for the chaos of the post-election demonstrations and

even served as apologists for the Iranian government. The aforementioned Faranak, who speaks English with a

213"A Death in Tehran," Frontline, PBS, November 2009,http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/deathintehran/etc/script.html (Accessed February 19, 2010).

59

fluent American accent, describes attending the demonstrations, seeing official brutality towards protesters and

her subsequent decision to leave Press TV. Sazegara makes explicit comparisons to both the 1979 and 1906

Constitutional revolutions – though the latter one is not explained for listeners. Mokhtari serves as a devil's

advocate as one of the film's lone pro-regime voices: “A bunch of people just broke away from the main demonstration of people who were asking for reform and started

attacking this station, the 117th Basij station, a volunteer force station, with Molotov cocktails and tried to set it alight. You

imagine someone trying to set fire to a military base in the middle of London, you know, you can imagine the reaction from

the security forces.”

“An Iranian Martyr” implies Mokhtari is justifying Agha-Soltan's death by that statement. In the film's

narrative of Agha-Soltan's death and the ensuing storm, the most frequent framing device used is that of exile.

Hejazi is in exile, so is Makan, so are Tavekoli and Sazegara, so are others. The price of dissent in Iran, the film

seems to imply, is exile. Outside observers, such as the New York Times, also noted that the documentary

emphasizes what it sees as the ephemerality of the post-election dissent movement in Iran214:

“Others in the program who talk about the shooting and the protests have also fled Iran, including Ms. Agha-Soltan’s

boyfriend, Caspian Makan. He laments having to leave his country, but also having to leave her resting place.

It’s a regret that might be shared, in a sense, by anyone watching this program who saw the video back in June and thought

big changes were imminent. It feels as if we’ve left that version of Neda Agha-Soltan behind and relegated her to being just

another casualty of oppression.”

Subsequent BBC coverage of Iran's post-election political challenges for the remainder of 2009

continued largely to use the same framing devices as prior. However, the majority of Iran coverage in this time

period was devoted to more recent stories such as the continuing Iranian nuclear program and geopolitical

tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United Kingdom.

One story that briefly entered the news cycle was the detainment of several British sailors participating

in a yachting competition on behalf of Bahrain who were alleged to have strayed into territorial waters by the

Iranian government215. Bahrain and Iran have tense foreign relations, with the Islamic Republic suspected of

involvement in an attempted Shi'i coup d'etat in 1981 and Iran occasionally making territorial claims on the

small nation216. The framing of Iran and the United Kingdom in a representative article from that news story,

December 2, 2009's “British Yachtsmen Held For a Week Freed By Iran,” is telling. The sailors are referred to as

“yachtsmen” (presumably a more prestigious title) in the headline and opening paragraphs, with a switchover to

“sailors” in the seventh paragraph. The fourth paragraph contains a sarcastic use of quotation marks in reference

214Neil Genzlinger, “Frontline – A Death in Tehran,” The New York Times, November 16, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/arts/television/17death.html?_r=2&scp=8&sq=iran&st=cse (Accessed January 26, 2010).

215For an example of the BBC's coverage of the issue, see “British Yachtsmen Held for a Week Freed By Iran,” BBC News, December 2, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8389946.stm (Accessed January 28, 2010).

216Ali Younes, “Iran, Bahrain and the Arabs,” Al-Arabiyya English, March 3, 2009, http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2009/03/03/67617.html (Accessed January 28, 2010).

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to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard:“A statement by the Revolutionary Guard said interrogations had revealed their "illegal entry" had been "a mistake".

Relatives have told of their relief.”

The bulk of the center portion of the article describes the reaction of families and friends of the British

sailors and the accompanying diplomatic effort to release them by David Miliband and others. The article

concludes with a recounting of previous naval clashes between Great Britain and Iran that have resulted in the

detainment of British sailors.

BBC discourse and framing related to the post-election unrest made a return in late 2009 with the Ashura

protests and the deaths of both Seyyed Ali Mousavi, nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, and the highly influential

Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. A report on the arrest of Iranian opposition figures in late

December 2009217, for instance, repeats several of the tropes found in coverage of Agha-Soltan's death and the

post-election civil unrest in Iran. The 1979 Islamic Revolution, again, is held as a benchmark. The BBC states

that “intermittent protests in Iran following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in June

have represented the biggest challenge to the government since the 1979 Islamic revolution” - presumably, in

BBC eyes, the Iran-Iraq War caused less of a challenge to the government than the recent demonstrations.

Similarly, the bulk of the article contains information gathered from citizen journalists and new media sources

such as websites. Cited sources in the piece include the websites Norooz and Parlemannews, which are cited as

authoritative news sources along with BBC TV and the official IRNA news agency.

One more similar example of post-Neda framing of Iranian events continuing on the BBC can be found

in an Ashura piece from December 27, 2009. In a demonstration of the BBC's embrace of user-generated content

for Iranian coverage, the network rounded up citizen footage from Tehran Ashura demonstrations218. Four videos

were shown, several containing explicit violence. A 0:45 video shows people labeled as “protesters” “cornering

members of the Basij militia and taunting them.” Another 51 second video contains footage of Basij motorbikes

being burned by a crowd, with a translation of the crowd's slogan of “Don't be frightened, we are all together”

accompanying it. A third video shows an attack upon a Tehran police station. The 76 second long video is

described as:

“A group of protesters gathered outside a small police station in Tehran's Vali Asr square. An injured man was carried away

from the police station by the protesters. The protesters appear to ransack the police station, and flames can be seen to the

left of it.”

This video is accompanied by a banner warning viewers of “Disturbing Images.” Heavy blood is shown

streaming from the head of a bearded man who appears to be momentarily dazed at the start of the video and

who then recovers and melts into the crowd by :14. A crowd of mostly young and male demonstrators then

217“Iran Opposition Figures Arrested After Protests,” BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8432297.stm , December 28, 2009 (Accessed January 28, 2010).

218“Iran Ashura Clashes: Your Videos,” BBC News, December 27, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8432037.stm (Accessed January 28, 2010).

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attacks a small police substation. Numerous individuals can be seen on-camera photographing and filming the

assault – another indicator of how pervasive filming was in all of the Iranian events. The police station then

catches fire as the crowd claps and chants.

However, the description of the fourth video has the BBC making explicit, yet again, their comparison

between 1979 and 2009:“After a clash between protesters and the Basij security forces, the crowds set alight motorbikes of retreating forces. This

confrontation is on Enghelab Street, near Hafez Bridge in central Tehran. The protesters are shouting "Don't be frightened,

we are all together". Large disturbances took place on exactly this spot 30 years ago, on the traditional Shia day of

mourning, Ashura, in 1979, the year of the revolution.”

That slogan, also rendered as “Don't be afraid, we are all together,” was one of the most popular of the

2009 demonstrations.

All in all, the most notable fact about the BBC's coverage is their intentional transformation of Agha-

Soltan into a martyr whose story would be easily digestible by Britons. A full picture of her life was presented in

the Ronachan documentary, but news reports about Agha-Soltan constructed a martyrology narrative steeped in a

typically liberal, British sensibility. Most pictures portrayed her without a headscarf. The words of Hejazi, an

Iranian who speaks fluent English and chose to make his home in Britain, became the source of the predominant

soundbites used by the network. Agha-Soltan is invariably described as a “young woman.” Although the BBC

avoided the worst excesses of the mawkish newspapers of the United Kingdom, who called her the “Angel of

Iran,”219 their portrayal was still flawed by an overly-heavily reliance on interviews with Hejazi and Rostami-

Motlagh that stripped Agha-Soltan's life and death of complexity or subtlety.

219Courtney.

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Al Jazeera English

Al Jazeera English was remarkably early in reporting the Agha-Soltan story. The network's first mention

comes in a round-up of deaths related to the Iranian election. Entitled “Deaths Confirmed in Iran Unrest”220,the

article was released on June 21, 2009 at 12:39 GMT. This indicates that Al-Jazeera had reported on the existence

of an Agha-Soltan video, amazingly, less than 24 hours after it was first posted to Facebook.

The description of Agha-Soltan's death is buried in the story's fourteenth paragraph. Agha-Soltan is

referred to only as “Neda”; the network claims that it is unable to verify the video. Tellingly, the importance of

user-generated content to the Iranian situation is mentioned as well:“Reports on community-driven websites such as Twitter claim a number of protesters were killed by police in the clashes.

One video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday alleged to show a teenage girl - being called Neda - dying on the street after

being shot by police. Al Jazeera was unable to verify the authenticity of the video or other reports of violence due to an

official ban on independent reporting in the capital. However, on blogs and social-networking websites, Neda was being

held up as a symbol and a martyr for the protesters.”

The 800-word article describes a variety of incidents in Tehran and elsewhere. Early on, the official

count of casualties is based on Iranian state media sources. Events taking place in Tehran are described as

“unrest”; participants are referred to as “protesters.” The reason for the events taking place is “fallout from the

disputed Presidential election.” It is mentioned that the Iranian government is blaming “rioters” and “terrorist

groups” for the incidents.

Despite the article's nominally focus on Iranian casualties, space is given to the political context.

Ahmadinejad is quoted as criticizing the United States and United Kingdom and mention is made of the

widespread belief by foreign governments that election fraud occurred. Al Jazeera mentions German Chancellor

Angela Merkel's demand for a full recount. Also quoted is Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Mousavi's spokesperson. The

remainder of the article is given over to the events on the ground. Al Jazeera describes “3000 opposition

protesters” on the street and mentions how “security forces responded with live rounds, batons and tear gas, with

the pandemonium continuing well into the night.” Other events are mentioned, including a suspected suicide

bombing outside Khomeini's tomb. Then, rather than ending the story, even more time is given over to the

political situation. A statement made by Mousavi in opposition newspaper Kaleme is quoted at length and an

extended explanation of the Guardian Council's role in any possible ballot recount is offered as a conclusion.

One of the Agha-Soltan videos was also shown on Al Jazeera the same day. An Al Jazeera segment

ported to YouTube entitled “Violence on the Streets of the Iranian Capital,” by correspondent Nazanine Moshiri221 shows approximately 33 seconds of Video A. Agha-Soltan's face is blurred out and Moshiri tells viewers in a

220“Deaths Confirmed in Iran Unrest,” Al-Jazeera English, June 21, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/200962183455848331.html (Accessed January 28, 2010).

221Nazanine Moshiri, “Violence on the Streets of the Iranian Capital,” Al Jazeera English, June 21, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-loe_VMws (Accessed February 20, 2010).

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voiceover that: “A young girl lies dying in a Tehran street. The footage is too disturbing to show in its original form. We don't know when

it was filmed and cannot confirm it's authenticity. But it was uploaded onto YouTube on Saturday. Twitter and other sites are

calling the young girl Neda. We don't know if that's her real name. It doesn't really matter. Now she has become a symbol

and martyr.”

The segment, which lasts 2:46, devotes 33 seconds to Agha-Soltan (the Video A excerpt, coupled with

voiceover). The remainder of the segment shows scenes of unrest in Tehran that is a mix of user-generated

content, footage from Al Jazeera Arabic and Iranian state television footage. 57 seconds are dedicated to

presenting the Iranian government's narrative of the events – that the participants were “terrorists” - which

includes clips of both a pro-Iranian guest on Al Jazeera English and a clip of General Esmaeil Moghadam giving

an interview from Iranian state television. Still photos of riot cops and paramilitaries on the street are shown that

still have a watermark from their source, Demotix Images - “the home of quality, user-generated news imagery.”222 After the stills are shown, the report switches to a clip from a press conference by Foreign Minister

Manouchehr Mottaki. Then, interestingly, Iranian state television news footage is shown and a statement by

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani is given in which he acknowledges that “a majority of the people are of the

opinion that the actual election results are different than what was officially announced.”

One article concerning Agha-Soltan were posted to Al Jazeera's website on June 22. Entitled “Iran's

Mousavi Urges More Protests,”223 the piece again does not mention Agha-Soltan prominently. In the twenty-

fourth paragraph, the story states:“Reports on community-driven websites such as Twitter claimed that a number of protesters were killed by police. One

video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday purportedly showed a teenage girl - referred to as Neda on social-networking sites -

dying on the street after being shot by police.”

This is essentially the wording used in the story the day before. The remainder of the piece deals with the

continuing ambiguous political situation in Iran. Kaleme is quoted once again, as are Iranian state domestic

television, Press TV, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and Amnesty International. Photos

used for the piece portray demonstrators wearing green masks, injured demonstrators, Rafsanjani and riot police

breaking up a demonstration. Notably, the photographs are supplied via Reuters instead of being user-generated.

Tehran is described as in “virtual lockdown” and violence is described as “several clashes between protesters and

police.” It is mentioned that “reports emerged of police attacking a vigil by about 100 people outside the offices

of the United Nations in Tehran.” Again, the rioters/”terrorist group” dichotomy is mentioned when analyzing

the government framing of events. Notably, it is mentioned early on in the article that foreign reporters from Al-

Arabiyya, the BBC and American magazines have been the subject of expulsions or Iranian government

suspensions – a fact mixed in with descriptions of actual casualties.

222Demotix Images, www.demotiximages.com (Accessed February 10, 2010).223“Iran's Mousavi Urges More Protests,” Al Jazeera English, June 22, 2009,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962212658772171.html (Accessed January 28, 2010).

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Agha-Soltan is also mentioned on The Riz Khan Show, a talk program. This would be the first of two

episodes that would mention her. His June 22 episode, also ported to YouTube224, contains the segment “Iran's

Internet Revolution” with guests Ethan Zuckerman of Harvard University/globalvoices.org, writer Soraya

Sepahpour-Ulrich and Dokhi Fassihian of the National Iranian-American Council. Agha-Soltan's video is

mentioned one minute in. According to Khan:“One particularly disturbing piece of footage that began circulating this weekend, the so-called Neda video, is of a young

woman in her twenties who was allegedly shot in the chest. Neda has become a symbol of Iran's escalating crisis from a

political confrontation to far more ominous political clashes.”

Khan states this in a voiceover as the television screen first shows Video A and then footage of a mass

rally in Tehran to accompany the “far more ominous political clashes” line. Again, there Agha-Soltan is

identified only as “Neda” and the term “clashes” is used.

Other deaths are described on Khan's program, but Agha-Soltan's is the only one explained in detail. The

remaining parts of his introductory report describe other events in Iran including civil unrest and Ahmadinejad's

statements. The tone of the program can be extrapolated from questions Khan asks guests – questions common

in the public sphere at the time of the Iranian post-election events. Among them are “is this a Twitter

revolution?,” “what impact has the international community had by not being vocal about what's going on?” and

questions of the sustainability of the power of new media in Iran. Neda is mentioned in passing by both

Sepahpour-Ulrich and another guest. Guests assail the notion that what is happening in Iran is an “internet

revolution” and note that the majority of Iranians lack financial or technical means to use the web or Twitter

regularly. Khan repeatedly pushes the notion that the most Ahmadinejad supporters are among the “rural poor”

and as so are less likely to be represented on online social networks. User calls and emails featured on the

program assail “the readiness by Western media and politicians to accept any criticism spread by Twitter against

the Iranian government,” give personal perspectives on 1979 in comparison to 2009 and criticize “the Muslim

world's deafening silence on Iran.” In fact, an emailer and caller both accuse the larger Muslim world of

forsaking Iran.

Between June 23 and September 22, 2009, Al Jazeera's framing of Agha-Soltan's death – and the larger

context of the Iranian post-election discord – continued to evolve. 12 Al Jazeera stories discussed her death

between June 23rd and September 22nd 2009, out of a total of 99 counted through a Google.com search of

english.aljazeera.net for keyword “Iran” filtered to remove duplicate stories and extraneous stories (ie sports

stories that mentioned Iran once in passing). Just over 12% of Al Jazeera's Iranian coverage in sum during that

90-day period mentioned Agha-Soltan. These references ranged from short mentions of Agha-Soltan's death (for

instance, photographs of Agha-Soltan showing up in unrelated news stories225) to talk shows and full-length

224Riz Khan, “Iran's Internet Revolution,” The Riz Khan Show, Al Jazeera English, June 22, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/06/200962281940160238.html (Accessed January 29, 2010).

225Example: “Protectors Decry Iran Detention,” Al Jazeera English, July 25, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097258437330979.html (Accessed January 29, 2010).

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programs devoted to Agha-Soltan's death.

On July 8, 2009, the documentary series People and Power aired a 23-minute film by French journalist

Manon Loizeau chronicling the immediate post-election events in Tehran. Entitled Iran: Inside the Protests226,

the documentary consists of footage filmed in Tehran between June 12 and June 20, 2009227. This program was

cut from a longer 40 minute documentary that first aired on the French state owned network France 2's Envoye

Special program on June 25, 2009228.

Much of the footage was filmed on hidden camera; a massive protest march on June 15 is filmed that,

according to the film, 20 kilometers long. Loizeau's documentary footage includes Basij attacks on university

dormitories and first-person testimony from Iranians who were seriously injured during the disturbances. The

footage also includes allegations that detained demonstrators were tortured and sexually abused229. In one scene

filmed in the latter part of the week, street fighting develop at a previously peaceful demonstration between

violent attendees and both police officers and Basij. Live rounds are fired at the crowd and the police

officers/Basij begin to assault random members, forcing attendees to scatter for safety. Loizeau is forced to take

shelter in a bookstore with fortified windows. Within the bookstore, a random cross-section of demonstration

attendees can be seen that range in age, economic class and gender. The effect is strangely reminiscent of the

June 20 demonstration footage showing Agha-Soltan and her teacher taking refuge in whatever street corner or

secure area becomes available.

On June 23, Al Jazeera English broadcast an interview with Makan that appears to have been given by

telephone; the credits identify Makan as still being in Tehran. The 112-second segment was ported directly to

YouTube and Al Jazeera English's website230. The description of the interview tells how “Neda Soltani was

allegedly killed by a Basij militia volunteer in Tehran as residents protested over the June 12 presidential

election” and promises viewers that “Caspian tells her story.” Strangely, the interview begins with Makan

speaking in understandable English. At the :06 mark, he switches to speaking in Iranian; an interpreter is dubbed

over Makan's voice and explains:

“Neda was with her music teacher in a place far from where people were clashing with police. They were caught in a heavy

traffic jam for an hour. It was hot and Neda was tired so she went out of the car to get some fresh air and rest. Unfortunately,

shortly afterwards, she was shot. The bullet hit her heart and part of her lungs. A few minutes later, she passed away on the

226“Iran: Inside the Protests,” People and Power, Al Jazeera English, July 8, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2009/07/20097811282729500.html (Accessed January 29, 2010).

227Manon Loizeau, personal correspondence.228“L’Iran au Coeur de la Contestation,” Envoye Special, France 2, June 25, 2009, http://envoye-special.france2.fr/index-

fr.php?page=reportage-bonus&id_article=1586 (Accessed February 2, 2010).229In some cases, more. The film also describes cases where detained protesters were subjected to “acts of sexual

degradation” in custody and video of dead protesters (albeit from a less camera-friendly angle than Agha-Soltan) can be clearly made out by the viewer.

230“Fiance Tells of Neda's Last Moments,” Al Jazeera English, June 23, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096234329424968.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

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way to the hospital. She was killed at a place where there were known clashes. Unfortunately, this was done by forces

belonging to the Basij. She had previously taken place in some silent demonstrations, but was not affiliated with any of the

parties – neither Ahmadinejad or Mousavi. Her goal was only one thing – it was freedom for people. […] the reason we

believe Basij did this is because in our country, people do not have the right to bear arms as in some other countries, such as

the United States. Besides, the person who shot her was seen by people and he was wearing plain clothes. If that person was

a police officer, than according to the laws of our country, the police wear uniforms. During these demonstrations it was

only the Basij who were wearing plain clothes and were also carrying guns. Besides, ordinary people do not carry guns and

shoot an innocent girl. If she was shot by ordinary people, then why three days after her death did the government take no

measures to find out who killed her? The government knows that she was shot by their own forces and that is why there was

no funeral or any commemoration of her death, at her mosque or even at her family house.”

Since the interview was held by telephone, the accompanying images begin with a picture of Makan on

the left side and a map of Iran on the right. At :09, a bumper states “Neda Aghan Sultan (sic) was reportedly shot

by security forces in Tehran on Saturday.” At :11, video is shown from YouTube that shows both Agha Soltan

and Panahi in the crowd at a demonstration. At :23, the footage shifts to Video A. Agha-Soltan's face is blurred

out by Al Jazeera's censor. At :36, the screen shifts back to the still of Makan and the map of Iran. Once the

video ends, the bumper changes to read “Neda's fiance blames Iran's feared Basij militia for her killing on

Saturday.” The bumper changes again at :43 to read “Iran's Revolutionary Guard has warned against protests

over election dispute.” Then the screen reverts to the :09 bumper. At :57, video shifts to still photographs of

Makan and Agha-Soltan. Four images are shown, with three of them appearing to have been taken while on

vacation. Agha-Soltan is not wearing a scarf in any photos except for the last, non-vacation one. However, Agha-

Soltan's hair is visibly coming out of the loosely-worn scarf in that photograph. By 1:16, the image shifts back to

Makan. At 1:25, the tells viewers that “Days of protests in Iran against June 12 elections have left at least 19

dead.” At 1:30, video footage (not credited to any site) appears on-screen showing Basij on motorcycles

parading through the streets of Tehran. At 1:34, the screen shifts to rooftop footage taken of Basij in Tehran

assaulting and beating demonstrators. At 1:43, a new video is shown of someone (presumably a Basij) wielding

an automatic rifle out of a window.

The interviewer's voice is not heard during the Makan interview, which suggests it was heavily edited

even before translation was overdubbed. At no time was the incompatibility of Makan's suggestion that Agha-

Soltan was just “driving through” and the clear video showing Agha-Soltan and Panahi in the exact same outfits

at a demonstration mentioned. Again here, Al Jazeera refers to Agha-Soltan repeatedly in bumpers as “Neda.”

The martyr narrative seems to be at work here, given Al Jazeera's choice of the adjective “feared” to describe the

Basij, along with the replay of the Revolutionary Guard warning.

Released the same day, the article “Iran Body Rules Out Poll Annulment” also mentions Agha-Soltan231.

231“Iran Body Rules Out Poll Anullment,” Al Jazeera English, June 23, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962374448861297.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

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This story concludes with a quote from Iranian activist Hadi Ghaemi saying that her death has become a symbol

of the protesters. Ghaemi tells Al Jazeera that “the pictures of her very last moments will become a huge symbol

of these protests […] It will become the collective memory of the Iranian people for what happened over the past

few days.” The article is illustrated with a Reuters photograph of protesters, with one in the foreground clearly

wielding a mobile camera phone. The sidebar shows Agha-Soltan and Makan and links to the Makan interview

mentioned prior.

June 24th's lone Al Jazeera piece on Agha-Soltan, “Iran's Neda Killing 'Was Illegal',”232 develops the

network's narrative further by being built around an interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

Ebadi's comments are interspersed with descriptions of the Agha-Soltan video and descriptions of the situation in

Tehran. An offer is made by Ebadi to legally represent Agha-Soltan's family against “the people who ordered the

shooting and those who fired at her.” Ebadi also states that “Neda had not participated in the rally but, even if

she had, they did not have the right to shoot her.” The article mentions that Agha-Soltan “has become a symbol

for people protesting against the disputed reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” Her death video is described as

“recorded on a mobile phone show[ing] what appeared to be people attempting to save her life after she was

apparently hit by a sniper's bullet.” Agha-Soltan is again referred to by her first name repeatedly and violence by

the Iranian authorities against demonstrators is graphically described. Ebadi contrasts Agha-Soltan's right to free

assembly and the Iranian constitution's promise of the right to peaceful rallies and demonstrations with the

behavior of the Islamic Republic. A sidebar on the article asks readers to send their user-generated videos and

pictures from Iran.

Agha-Soltan was only briefly mentioned on Al Jazeera in the next week. A June 25 piece on pro-

Mousavi university professors being detained233 briefly covers anti-regime protests that were taking place in

Tehran. A plan by protesters to release thousands of balloons saying “Neda You Are Still in Our Hearts” is

described, and Al Jazeera notes that her death has become an iconic image for protesters. Several days later, on

June 29, Al Jazeera describes how Ahmadinejad's reelection was confirmed by the Guardian Council234. In this

piece, it is noted that Ahmadinejad “asked a leading judge to investigate the killing of Neda Agha Soltan, a

young woman who became an icon of Iran's opposition after video capturing her bleeding to death on a Tehran

street was circulated worldwide.” The following paragraphs describe how Ahmadinejad stated Agha-Soltan was

killed by “enemies of the nation” on his website but rebuts that fact with a mention of Hejazi's BBC interview

where he blamed a Basij member. Again, here, mention is made of Agha-Soltan's iconic status. This article

breaks with Al Jazeera precedent by referring to her by her last name instead of first upon second mention.

232“Iran's Neda Killing 'Was Illegal',” Al Jazeera English, June 24, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962484755543950.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

233“Iran University Professors 'Held',” Al Jazeera, June 25, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962533640849336.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

234“Iran Recount Gives Ahmadinejad Win,” Al Jazeera, June 29, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009629151258105455.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

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Al Jazeera does not mention Agha Soltan much in the next month, but she begins to be mentioned in

stories around the time of her Arbaeen mourning ceremony. On July 25, an article entitled “Protesters Decry Iran

Detentions”235 is illustrated with a picture of two older women, wearing hijabs, holding photographs of Iranians

killed in the post-election unrest. One of the photographs is of Neda, while the other is of a man wearing a black

jacket who is shown bloody and injured in a photograph immediately below. The next day, an article entitled

“Iran Opposition to Mourn Protesters” was published236. Agha-Soltan is mentioned as one of the protesters to be

mourned; she is described as “a 26-year-old music student, who was shot on June 20, as protesters clashed with

riot police and members of the pro-government Basij militia in Tehran.” The article also mentions that Agha-

Soltan's mother was planning to take part in the protests. Again in this article, Agha-Soltan is referred to on

second mention only as “Neda.”

The next day, an article entitled “Iranian Police Clash With Mourners” was posted237. Violent attacks on

mourners by the Iranian police are described. A witness is quoted as telling Reuters that “hundreds have gathered

around Neda Agha-Soltan's grave to mourn her death and other victim's deaths.” Al Jazeera adds that Agha-

Soltan has become “a symbol of the opposition.” She is described in this case as “a 26-year-old music student,

[who] was shot as protesters clashed with riot police and members of the pro-government Basij militia in

Tehran.” The remainder of the article consists of descriptions of rifts between conservatives and reformists in the

opposition and mentions of the Iranian government's claim that opposition group the People's Mujaheddin was

behind recent demonstrations. Sources quoted in the story mostly question Ahmadinejad's ability to retain power

in Iran.

These were the last news stories Agha-Soltan was mentioned in during 2009. However, her name was

bought up in two analysis pieces printed to Al Jazeera's website. On August 1, James Madison University

professor Bernd Kaussler wrote an essay asking if the Islamic Republic was nearing an end238. While primarily

discussing reformist hermeneutics and the influence and repercussions of Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah

Yazdi's influence on Ahmadinejad, he also notes the regime's harsh response to Agha-Soltan's mourners.

According Kaussler, “Basij units used taser guns against protesters as well as marking them with paintballs in

order to identify them at a later point” at her mourning ceremony. Although the main photograph accompanying

the piece is a generic photo of Ahmadinejad from the Getty agency, a second smaller photograph shows a

placard at a demonstration reading “Down With the Islamic Republic!” accompanied by the caption “Iran's

Revolutionary Guard Has Become Increasingly Powerful.” The next month, in September 2009, American Civil

235“Protesters Decry Iran Detentions,” Al Jazeera English, July 25, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097258437330979.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

236“Iran Opposition to Mourn Protesters,” Al Jazeera English, July 30, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097306505961426.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

237“Iranian Police Clsh With Mourners,” Al Jazeera English, July 31, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/2009730113037944759.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

238Bernd Kaussler, “Iran: The End of The Republic?,” Al Jazeera English, August 1, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/20098171953790365.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

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Liberties Union fellow Alexander Abdo wrote an analysis piece supporting the release of American atrocity

pictures from the Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib239. While mostly focusing on the internal American debate on

releasing the photographs, Abdo makes an explicit comparison of the Abu Ghraib pictures to the Agha-Soltan

video:

“It was the iconic picture of a man, hooded, wired and balanced on a cardboard box at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, that

signaled to our nation that our counter-terrorism policies had strayed far from our core values. Just weeks ago, the president

himself recognised the transformative power of pictures. While addressing the post-election unrest in Iran, he noted that he

had seen the amateur video of an Iranian woman – Neda – dying after being shot in the chest. The video has come to

symbolise Iran's oppressive response to recent political protest. President Obama was moved by what he saw: "It's

heartbreaking. And I think that anybody who sees it knows that there's something fundamentally unjust about that."

Again, here, is the characterization of Agha-Soltan by her first name and mention of her video's iconic

nature. But in this case, Agha-Soltan is being juxtaposed to emotionally painful images resulting from the

brutality of another power – the United States.

Agha-Soltan was also the subject of two Al Jazeera talk shows ported to the internet during this period.

The first was another episode of The Riz Khan Show, titled “Iran's Bitter Political Divide.”240 Khan's guests,

Fassihian and Global Interfaith Peace founder Kaveh Afrasiabi primarily discuss Ahmadinejad's plans for his

second term, the role of women in the opposition and Iran's political future. The show's introduction mentions

that “the fatal shooting of Neda Agha Soltan became the most defining image of the demonstrations.”

40 seconds in, Khan compares the violence of 2009 to that of 1979 as clips of demonstrators in Tehran

are shown. The show's first mention of Agha-Soltan is at :46, when Khan mentions how Agha-Soltan's death

video became an iconic image of the protests over footage from Video B. Fassihian takes the anti-regime

position while Afrasiabi is the devil's advocate for Ahmadinejad. At 5:53, Fassihian claims that over 300 people

were killed by the Basij and she says that the United States would never do this to protesters, in response to

Afrasiabi offering a scenario where supporters of Al Gore could have rioted in 2004 and the American

government would have been justified in opening fire on them. Afrasiabi confidently states his belief in the trope

that foreign governments were behind Tehran rioting. SMS messages sent into the program are scrolled on the

bottom of the screen and consistently support a pro-Ahmadinejad, anti-Mousavi position.

The second show goes into much greater detail about Agha-Soltan, with a contrarian position that fits

into the alleged pan-Arab and pan-Muslim biases of Al Jazeera discussed by Rinnawi and Cherribi. Media

criticism program The Listening Post ran an August 21 episode that claimed to delve into “double standards” in

the Western media, with Agha-Soltan as its subject241. According to the network's description of the program:

239Alexander Abdo, “Fight to Release Abu Ghraib Images,” Al Jazeera, September 8, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/09/200992112214934570.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

240The Riz Khan Show, “Iran's Bitter Political Divide,” Al Jazeera, August 6, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/08/200985134516516621.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

241“Corporate Media Wars,” The Listening Post, Al Jazeera English, August 21, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/listeningpost/2009/08/200982195238394421.html (Accessed February 2, 2010).

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“The Listening Post's Salah Khadr reports on the murder of two Muslim women, but how only one of caught the Western

media's attention. Both were young Muslim women standing up for their right to free expression, whose murders caused

outrage throughout the Arab and Muslim world. But only Neda Sultan, whose dying moments during a Tehran street protest

were broadcast on televisions and computer screens, made news the world over. Marwa el-Sherbini was a pregnant 32-year-

old Egyptian pharmacist living in Dresden, Germany. She was savagely stabbed to death in front of her husband and three-

year-old son, in a court of law, by the man who she was prosecuting for making racist slurs against her. The murder of El-

Sherbini received all kinds of coverage in the Arabic and Muslim media, but limited and tepid coverage in the West. The

Listening Post trys (sic) to answer why only one of them has been turned into a martyr by the Western news media and the

other virtually ignored.”

Despite the great tragedy of El-Sherbini's death, this description fails to note that Al Jazeera was as

responsible as any other “Western” news organization for the portrayal of Agha-Soltan as a martyr. In the

introduction at 12:51, host Richard Gizbert talks about a woman who died “standing up for their right for free

expression.” Behind Gizbert, a photograph of Agha-Soltan sans scarf can be seen. Gizbert goes on to explain that

“this is not the iconic, whose dying moments during an Iran street protest in June were broadcast on television

and computer screens the world over.” With that, he gives an introduction to the tragedy of Marwa El-Sherbini.

The Egyptian pharmacist was stabbed in a Dresden, Germany courtroom by a neighbor against whom she had

filed harassment charges after he threatened her over her headscarf. The neighbor, Alex Wiens, was a mentally ill

Russian-German who stabbed her at least 16 times in the courtroom before anyone intervened. When El-

Sherbini's husband Elwi Ali-Okaz, a doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute, rushed to her aid, he was

stabbed multiple times in the chest and shot by a police officer who was called into the courtroom for assistance.

The police officer apparently mistook the husband for the attacker. El-Sherbini died at the scene and Ali-Okaz

was critically wounded242.

Khadr begins the segment by discussing Agha-Soltan's death over clips from Fox News and NTV

(Turkey). He tells viewers that “the image of Neda Soltan's last moments in the streets of Tehran got the

attention of audiences all over the world. Her story dominated global news reports.” Clips from even more

television news channels are shown. Khadr continues his narration over footage from both Video A & Video B

with an explanation of El-Sherbini's death that begins “And yet, less than two weeks after the media storm

surrounding Neda's death, a pregnant young Egyptian woman, Marwa El-Sherbini, was killed inside a German

courtroom.” Footage from a BBC News story on El-Sherbini's death is then shown and Listening Post lets the

narrative from the BBC explain the tragedy: the BBC's presenters mention the pregnancy, the courtroom and the

bloody multiple stabbings.

Then the video switches to footage of a large Arab demonstration calling for justice for el-Sherbini as

Khadr tells viewers that “while Neda's death has become emblematic of such much, Marwa's tragic fate went

242Abdel-Moneim Said, “Footnotes on Marwa's Murder,” Al-Ahram Weekly, July 16, 2009, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/956/op1.htm (Accessed February 2, 2010).

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almost unnoticed in the Western media.” Raza Kazim of the Islamic Human Rights Commission then comes on

screen for a soundbite243 where he discusses El-Sherbini's death in the courtroom and asks rhetorically why there

has been so little coverage of her death. Jamal Dajani of Link TV (incidentally, the main repackager of Al

Jazeera English in the United States) offers another soundbite. He discusses the lack of coverage of El-Sherbini's

death in the United States vis a vis Germany. Dajani mentions a colleague who was unaware of El-Sherbini's

death, but “was very familiar with the murder of Neda Soltan in Iran. After all, his network provided wall to wall

coverage of the recent election controversy.” Khadr asks if El-Sherbini's tragedy was “simply missed” by the

media or if it was ignored. On screen is a female protester, wearing an abaya, holding a sign reading “Marwa al-

sherbini's martyrdom revealed the nature of Western and European human right (sic).”

In order to address his question, Khadr segues into a soundbite by Maleiha Malik of Kings College. She

says that “it surprises me, given that the facts were so clear in the Marwa case, that there wasn't a greater

discussion in the way in which Islam has been constructed post-9/11. There is tendency for the media, in most

Western countries, to represent Islam as the aggressors and perpetrators of violence. When in fact Muslims are

the victims of hate crimes or racism, there isn't an actual language to express that within the European media.”

El-Sherbini's death coverage is then contrasted unfavorably to death coverage of non-Muslim Dutch filmmaker

Theo Van Gogh in 2004 , who was killed by Dutch Muslim Mohammed Bouyeri. Dajani and Kazim then appear

on screen as clips of death coverage from Van Gogh are shown.

At 4:13, when Marwa footage is shown again, the person talking is a Muslim – Press TV's Yvonne

Ridley, appearing on the BBC. Khadr then criticizes BBC and CNN coverage of El-Sherbini's death, calling it

“the exception rather than the rule.” He then explains that the “avalanche” of Agha-Soltan coverage was due to

“the western media sharing her cause.” Khadr tells viewers afterwards, at 4:39, that there was a wider context to

“the Marwa story.” Dajani's voice is then heard onscreen in a voiceover over television clips of both Agha-Soltan

and el-Sherbini. Dajani says that “Neda Soltan was made into the symbol of the Iran atrocities and the crimes

perpetrated by the Iranian regime against its own people. Marwa's death, on the other hand, was blamed on a

deranged outcast – a lone wolf.”

Footage of massive demonstrations inside Egypt and around the Muslim world are then shown to prove

the righteousness of her death. Most of the female demonstrators are visibly religious Muslims; in the footage,

very few women not wearing a hijab or abaya are shown. Voiceovers from all three guests are then heard

attacking structural faults in the Western media over footage of both women.

When Khadr appears on screen again at 6:00, he asks “what does the lack of depth and sporadic

coverage of Marwa's death compared to Neda's say about the lack of independent media in the Western world,

243The Islamic Human Rights Commission is a British advocacy group whose mission statement, as defined on its website (http://www.ihrc.org), says that “our inspiration derives from the Qur'anic injunctions that command believers to rise up in defence of the oppressed.” Incidentally, the IHRC has been accused by secularist British-Asian organization Awaaz South Asia Watch of extensive financial subsidization by the Iranian government (http://www.awaazsaw.org/awaaz_pia4.pdf).

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and Europe in particular? Especially when it comes to representing the ethnic minorities.” Malik is then heard on

screen stating that the media has a duty to break down prejudice as footage from German demonstrations is seen.

By 6:43, Khadr explains that “there are complex factors that effect whether news stories make it to air, or, as if in

the case of Marwa's death, hardly get any airtime at all.” Malik then explains how, in her view, the lack of clarity

in the events of Agha-Soltan's death meant “those who in the media who make decisions about how to represent

the case got more discretion about how they were going to use the story to promote different agendas.” Dajani

then gives the next voiceover, explaining how Iranian television stations “took the murder of Marwa and ran

with it, exploiting the theme of Iranophobia in Europe. Perhaps as revenge for all the negative publicity the

Iranian regime received for the murder of Agha-Soltan.” Footage is then shown of a reporter for Press TV asking

if “the silence would have been so deafening” if El-Sherbini was Christian instead of Muslim. Khadr closes the

segment at 7:30 by stating that “there were two young women and two brutal murders. And two news stories

where reporters stopped being reporters and became activists.”

This segment is then followed up by a regular feature on Listening Post entitled “Global Village Voices”

where users send comments on stories into the program via webcam. One of the guests, an American medical

student identified as “Hannah H.,” offers up the explanation that Agha-Soltan's death received more coverage

because it was captured on video. Another viewer, Briton Mohammed Shafiq, who is identified as chairman of

the Ramadhan Foundation, is then shown. Shafiq states that the lack of coverage of El-Sherbini's death is an

example of an anti-Muslim bias in the Western media and that what coverage there was was biased. He then

states that the Western media contributed to El-Sherbini's murder and “should hang their heads in shame.” The

program then ends.

Al Jazeera's coverage of Agha-Soltan's death is primarily colored by the interplay between the generally

Western or Westernized impulsizes of Al Jazeera English's staff (which is, however, emphatically not American;

the self-proclaimed “Voice of the Global South” is much more Europeanized) with the complicated realities of

Al Jazeera's Qatari roots. As detailed in the conclusion, Mohammed Al-Kasim and others have produced

fascinating evidence that Al Jazeera's Iran coverage was intimately tied to Qatari foreign policy and the need to

keep good relations with the Islamic Republic. Conscious and unconscious anti-Persian biases among the large

Arab contingent at Al Jazeera English also play a part, though to a far smaller degree than at their Arabic-

language parent channel. For Al Jazeera, it is less a question of the “2009-as-1979” motif than of finding a

narrative presentable to a wide-ranging, left-leaning international audience that simultaneously pleases the

network's corporate hierarchy.

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RT

Coverage of the ongoing Iran situation was sparse and underreported on RT/Russia Today in the June 20

– June 22, 2009 time period. Only five stories (including both original online content and ported television

footage) appeared on RT's website. Out of the three networks profiled, RT was the only not to have aired even a

single mention of Agha-Soltan in this time period. A search of RT's Iran coverage between June 20 – June 22,

using google.com to search the site rt.com for keyword “Iran” cross-indexed with a site search directly at rt.com

uncovered five stories directly related to Iran. Of these five stories, none were news stories covering the protest;

two consisted of online-only columns or blogs.

On March 20, a column on conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11th events was posted to RT's

website by Evgeny Belenkiy of Turkish publication EurasiaCritic. Entitled “The War on Terror as a Spin of

Imagination,”244 Belenkiy's column posits a scenario in which Israeli intelligence services learned of an attack on

the World Trade Center in advance “with a minimum time margin” that allowed them to warn Israeli nationals

working in the Twin Towers but did not give them the opportunity to alert anyone else. In the course of the

column, most of which delineates various conspiracy theories circulating around September 11 th, Iraq,

Afghanistan and al-Qaeda, Belenkiy mentions the possibility (repudiated by him in the piece) that the United

Sates might target Iran strictly for its oil.

The same day, a blog post was written on rt.com by Russian-American Alexey Sazonov describing the

situation in Iran and entitled “Which Direction is Iran Headed?”245 (sic). Sazonov, an economics student at the

University of Illinois in Chicago, puts forth the thesis that Khameini had no choice but to defend the 2009

reelection of Ahmadinejad. In his piece, he states a possibility that Ahmadinejad engaged in vote fraud, but

advocates Iranian governmental stability at all costs in order so the Islamic Republic will serve as a regional

rival to the United States. Strangely for the network, Sazonov at one point asks if Iran's regime “will prove to be

as violent and oppressive as the Sheikh who was overthrown by the infamous Iranian Revolution that defied

Western ambitions in Persia.” It is unclear whether his referral to the late Shah as a “Sheikh” was a rhetorical

point or a typo. Sazonov claims that any mass civil unrest in Iran would lead to civil war with the United States

having a “heavy influence.” The column ends with a call for the Iranian government to make concessions to the

Tehrani protesters in the name of stability.

On June 21, RT ported to their website a video segment entitled “The Resident: NYC Speaks Out on

Iran's Protests”246 by New York-based video producer Lori Harfenist. The 3:20 segment consists of a series of

244Evegeny Belenkiy, “The War on Terror As a Spin of Imagination,” RT, June 20, 2009, http://rt.com/Politics/2009-06-20/The_War_on_Terror_as_a_Spin_of_Imagination._Part_3._Conspiracies..html (Accessed Feburary 3, 2010).

245Alexey Sazonov, “Which Direction is Iran Headed?,” RT, June 20, 2009, http://rt.com/About_Us/Blogs/With_words_we_govern_men___Disraeli/2009-06-20.html (Accessed February 3, 2010).

246Lori Harfenist, “The Resident: NYC Speaks Out on Iran's Protests,”RT, June 21, 2009, http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-21/NYC_speaks_out_on_Iran_s_protests.html (Accessed February 3, 2010).

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street interviews with New Yorkers filmed around Times Square on the subject of the Iranian post-election

events. Harfenist asks in the introduction, “why are some people considered protesters and others considered

rioters? Why are some people allowed to incite violence and not others?” At :17 seconds, a bumper flashes

across the bottom of the screen announcing “New Yorkers: Too Easy to Cross the Line Between Protests and

Riots,” setting the predominant tone for the remainder of the piece. The interviewees are all quoted to the effect

of saying there is a thin line between protesting and rioting, with one interviewee saying that the idea of

“protesting” in itself is bad. At 2:01, Harfenist asks an interviewee why the United Sates is not paying any

attention to protests in Georgia. Out of the ten people interviewed in the segment, only three mention Iran at all.

Two stories mention Iran on June 22. The first is a report on honor killings among Muslim emigres in

Europe247 that interviews an Iranian-Swede named “Fatima” who went into hiding after her father threatened to

kill her for having Swedish friends. The second program is a documentary program that goes into much greater

detail about Iran. Aired on the In Context program, the episode is titled “Iran's Street Democracy”248 and is

hosted by Peter Lavelle. Iran only takes up four minutes of the program; the remainder of the 25-minute

documentary is devoted to discussing the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) conference, Israeli Prime Minister

Binyamin Netanyahu's stance on a proposed Palestinian state and current events in Belarus. The Iranian segment,

titled “Tainted Victory,” begins with an introduction that asserts “the Western world has never thought of Iran

having a form of democracy,” and describes Ahmadinejad as being adored by many average Iranians and

“controversial, even hated by some who demand greater modernization of the Islamic Republic.” Lavelle points

out contradictions in the character of the Islamic Republic and cites a speech given by Ahmadinejad. The show

then gives an admirably detailed and complex description of the Iranian political system, with the nature of

“Islamic democracy” explained for viewers as footage of Tehran protests is shown. Afshin Molavi of the New

America foundation is interviewed; Molavi tells RT that “a more hardline second generation is trying to expunge

the old guard, pragmatic, mellowing conservatives from power.” Molavi goes on to say that the post-election

events comprise a crisis of legitimacy for the Islamic Republic. In a voiceover, Lavelle states that “in my humble

opinion, Washington is hoping that Iran will fall into chaos.” Footage of violence in Tehran and ambulances

streaming through the streets is then shown. Ahmadinejad is then shown on screen saying that it is, in fact, the

United States that is “consumed by chaos.” Lavelle then explains that the Iranian people and paranoid and scared

of the West. Iranian interior minister Sadeq Mahsouli is quoted approvingly. The segment then ends as Lavelle

explains that what is happening in Iran is not a “Velvet Revolution,” but rather a battle for the direction of the

Islamic Republic.

The next day, RT ran a segment hosted by Washington correspondent Dina Gusovsky that continues the

247“Muslim Girls Fall Victim to Honor Killings,” RT, June 22, 2009, http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-22/Muslim_girls_fall_victim_to_honor_killings.html (Accessed February 3, 2010).

248“Iran's Street Democracy,” In Context, RT, June 22, 2009, http://rt.com/About_Us/Programmes/in_context/2009-06-22/484485.html (Accessed February 3, 2010).

75

intentionally post-Ahmadinejad framing of the Iranian post-election events. Titled “How Western Media Backs

the 'Green Revolution' in Iran,”249 the piece alleges that a conscious conspiracy by American and British media

outlets existed to help instigate a revolution inside Iran. This story also marks the first time Agha-Soltan was

mentioned (although fleetingly). At :23 seconds in, a series of clips from American cable news stations are

played. First is a clip from Fox News, then CNN, then MSNBC, whose host Keith Olbermann is shown

announcing that “if every revolution has its martyr, the Iranian revolution uprising seems to have found its own”

over a still photograph of what appears to be Agha-Soltan. Gusovsky states in an accusatative tone that Barack

Obama opened his news conferences at the time by answering reporters' questions about Iran. A clip from a prior

interview with pro-Ahmadinejad journalist Jalal Ghazi is then shown in which he dismisses accusations of voter

fraud in the Iranian election. Footage of street violence in Tehran is then shown while the presenter asks “why

the American media overlooks that fact.” An interview clip with American economist Paul Craig Roberts is

shown in which he states that the American media serves as a “propaganda ministry” for his government. That is

followed by another interview clip with American journalist Wayne Madsen, where the interviewee claims that

the Western media – specifically American news channels such as CNN, MSNBC and Fox News - are engaged

in “a coordinated and concerted effort to stir things up.”

Video footage of the Tehran demonstrations in the immediate days following the election are shown and

then the screen cuts to footage of mass demonstrations in Kiev from the days of the “Orange Revolution” of

2004 and 2005. The presenter then asks if the Iranian events are “another American attempt to foment a 'color

revolution' in the Middle East, as it had done in Eastern Europe before.” Madsen is then shown alleging that

“there is a tendency now to take advantage of what is an internal problem with the present Iranian government,

in which we see some of the same hallmarks in Tehran today as we saw in the Ukraine, Georgia and these other

themed revolutions.” The screen then cuts to Roberts, who confidently states that “the CIA has been conducting

a destabilization plan within Iran for the last two years; it is well known and has been widely reported in the

American and British press. We are seeing the fruits of an orchestrated protest.”

Gusovsky then asks if the American media is “ignoring” foreign involvement in the events in Iran as she

is shown on camera standing in front of the former Shah-era Iranian Embassy in Washington, DC. While in front

of the ornately decorated building, she asks “if perhaps the United States has not abandoned its ambitions in Iran

itself. As Western media coverage continues to paint the same pictures, one has to wonder whether or not there is

more to the story then the eye can see.”

RT seems to interpret the events on the ground in 2009 Tehran as a repeat of the 1953 American-

sponsored coup d'etat against Mossadegh in Iran. The transcript of the story posted on RT's website also includes

an additional interview snippet which did not appear in the video provided, in which Madsen alleges that the

Iranian events were funded by Hungarian-American entrepreneur George Soros. From the transcript :

249“How Western Media Backs the 'Green Revolution' in Iran,” RT, June 23, 2009, http://rt.com/Politics/2009-06-24/How_Western_media_backs_the__green_revolution__in_Iran.html (Accessed February 4, 2010).

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“George Bush funneled $400 million to George Soros’ Open Society Institute and National Endowment for Democracy

(NED) institutions to influence this opposition movement against the Iranian government,” Madsen claims. “Every time you

hear about revolutions it is George Soros and the Open Society Institute.”

Hidden inside the RT page for the story is a second piece alleging a Western media conspiracy behind

the Iranian post-election events. This story was not posted to the main list of RT stories and is only shown as an

embedded video within the transcript of the “How Western Media Backs the 'Green Revolution' in Iran” piece,

though it was also uploaded under account name RussiaToday to YouTube250. This piece, entitled “Meddling

Media,” accuses foreign media of involvement in the Tehran protests in an even more explicit tone. The

presenter states at :12 that the Iranian government has criticized both the BBC and Voice of America for fueling

violence. At :25, it is explained that “Western web services” such as Google, Facebook and Twitter are popular

in Iran as footage is shown of young Iranians trying to access facebook.com and dealing with Iranian firewalls.

Roberts is then shown making his CIA allegations . Then, Madsen is bought on for a live interview. The

presenter asks Madsen if the videos of Iranian violence being posted on YouTube are putting any pressure on the

regime. Madsen replies:“I think what we have to worry about is the blowback effect. We already seen Iran limiting technology access; what's known

as a 'technology blockade' which has the opposite effect of what many of these outside Western influences may have wanted

to see. I do believe that there is a tendency now to take advantage of what may be an internal problem of the present Iranian

government between the Expediency Council and Assembly of Experts, which is influenced by Rafsenjani who supported

Mousavi the opposition candidate, and the Guardian Council of the Supreme Ayatollah. But there are these outside

influences which are trying to make the best, or the worst in this case, of something that should best be left to the Iranian

government and opposition to handle. I would note that President Obama is under intense pressure to get involve but as of

yet is not succumbing to this neo-Conservative pressure, most of it coming from Republicans in Congress.”

The presenter then announces that he wants to explore this “conspiracy theory” more in-depth with

Madsen. He claims that Kenneth Timmerman of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran thought up the “Green

Revolution” motif on his website the day before the Iranian election took place251. Madsen is asked if “that

suggests anything suspicious”:

“Absolutely. When we hear things like the 'Green Revolution' and the 'Twitter Revolution' – The 'Twitter

Revolution,' of course, was tried in Moldova and failed as a result of their recent election, this has all the markings of the

Open Society Institute of George Soros and also the National Endowment for Democracy where George Bush funneled

about $400 million into this operation to influence the opposition movement against the Iranian government. So, any times

you hear about these themed revolutions, it's George Soros, the Open Society Institute, which promotes civil society, but in

fact, as we see in the streets of Tehran, promotes civil strife.”

The presenter then tells Madsen that “some commentators have seen similarities between the Green

Mousavi opposition in Iran and those color revolutions,” referring to the various political events in the past few

250ibid.251Ibid.

77

years in Georgia and the Ukraine. Madsen, of course, agrees and also accuses George Soros of having a hand in

these. For good measure, Madsen then explains how Wolf Blitzer of CNN is an associate of Timmerman and

how, as a result, “CNN had trouble prying itself away from coverage of the demonstrations in Tehran to cover

what was a terrible Metro accident here in Washington.” Madsen ends his interview by explaining that CNN,

Fox News and MSNBC are engaged in a “conscious effort” to perpetuate a Green Revolution framing of the

post-election events in Iran.

Madsen and Roberts both serve as frequent interview guests for RT, routinely offering positions on

everything from why “Washington should listen to Putin”252 to reports that Iraqi hackers affiliated with the anti-

American insurgency infiltrated Pentagon computer systems253. RT claims to broadcast an alternative perspective

to viewers; some of the positions taken by the pair fall far outside of the spectrum of positions broadcast by the

BBC and Al Jazeera English. Both actively claim that the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States were

the result of a government conspiracy – a position RT has also given airtime to on several occasions. Madsen has

advocated claims that American president Barack Obama was actually born in Kenya254 and that the H1N1 virus

was artificially created in a laboratory255. Roberts, who previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury,

has claimed that John McCain would have led the United States into a nuclear war with Russia over Georgia if

elected president256 and has complained that “pro-Zionist Jews have a disproportionate influence” over American

media257.

The next mention of Agha-Soltan on RT occurred again on The Resident, in an episode entitled “Is the

Media Fair on Iran?”258 Host Harfenist asks random individuals off the street in Manhattan various questions

regarding the coverage of the Iranian situation by American media in a 2:51 segment. In the introduction, she

asks viewers whether Iran coverage is “fair and balanced” (in a jab at the slogan of Fox News) or “even moral?”

At 1:53, Harfenist asks a pair of women “Do you think they're crossing any lines, like showing that girl dying?”

The women reply that it has to be shown. Harfenist then asks “why do we have to go there?” and one of the

women replies that the Agha-Soltan video should be aired “in order to show people how important it is.”

Following that, a man on the street is asked “if he had watched the video of that girl Neda dying?” The

252“Washington Should Listen to Putin,” RT, January 30, 2009, http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-01-30/_Washington_should_listen_to_Putin____Paul_Craig_Roberts.html (Accessed February 4, 2010).

253“Iraqi Insurgents Hack Pentagon's Surveillance,” RT, December 18, 2009, http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-12-18/hack-pentagon-iraq-drones.html (Accessed February 4, 2010).

254Wayne Madsen, “GOP Dirty Tricks Machine Readies a Charge That Obama is Not Eligible to be President,” Online Journal, June 9, 2008, http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3349.shtml (Accessed February 4, 2010).

255Wayne Madsen, “New Swine Flu Feared to be Weaponized Strain,” Online Journal, Apri 27, 2009, http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4631.shtml (Accessed February 4, 2010).

256Jason Bermas, “Nuclear Armaggedon: Jason Bermas Interviews Paul Craig Roberts,” infowars.com, August 27, 2008, http://www.infowars.com/nuclear-armaggedon-jason-bermas-interviews-paul-craig-roberts/ (Accessed February 4, 2010).

257Paul Craig Roberts, “What We Know and Don't Know About 9/11,” vdare.com, August 16, 2006, http://www.vdare.com/roberts/060816_what_know.htm (Accessed February 4, 2010).

258“Is The Media Fair on Iran?,” The Resident, RT, June 28, 2009, http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-28/Is_the_media_fair_on_Iran.html (Accessed February 4, 2010).

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interviewee then tells Harfenist that “It's a shame. 16 years old (sic). Why do they have to turn everything around

like she was a bad person or something?” A woman is then asked if she thinks it was moral for the media to air

the Agha-Soltan video. She replies that “they went a little far, I think, by showing something quite that graphic.”

The interview then cuts to another woman, who responds that “absolute power corrupts absolutely. You know,

it's human nature to want to hold onto that power. You want to keep that status quo and you don't want to report

what is going on.” With that, Agha-Soltan disappeared from RT for the rest of 2009. The demonstrations at the

time of her arbaeen, the massive spread of her videos, her adoption as an icon of the Iranian situation by people

around the world all went unnoticed by RT.

But what RT did notice was Iran's nuclear program and Russia's role in it. Out of the 142 RT stories

about Iran between June 23 and December 31, 2009, more than half centered around Iran's nuclear program and

a proposed American-Israeli alliance against Iran's nuclear program. While a full listing of RT articles focusing

on Iran's nuclear ambitions cannot be included due to space considerations, the network ran four articles on the

Islamic Republic during the week of Agha-Soltan's arbaeen. One was an interview with American-Israeli

political consultant Mitchell Barak in which he advocated an Israeli strike on Iran259, another interview with

American libertarian Karen Kwiatkowski that accused the American government of planning military

intervention in Iran260, a feature piece on Palestinian Sunnis in Gaza becoming Shi'is with implied Iranian

support261 and a tribute piece to the 1979 Islamic Revolution262. In the following month of August 2009, out of 7

stories published on Iran, four focused on Iran's nuclear program or proposed American-Israeli ambitions

towards the country263.

RT's Iran coverage is representative of the network's programming. While presenters and guests provide

views that offer greater political and historical context than the BBC or (sometimes) Al Jazeera, it is within an

explicitly pro-Russian framework that often tends towards conspiratorial explanations of world politics. The

network's explanations of Anglo-American involvement in the 1953 coup and of the 1979 revolution are

refreshing, but it is unsurprising that the Soviet Union's involvement in the overthrow of the first Pahlevi shah

goes unmentioned. The lack of coverage of Agha-Soltan is important in and of itself, given the sheer volume of

press dedicated to her throughout the world – and not just on the BBC and Al Jazeera. Coverage of Ahmadinejad

259“Possible Israeli Strike on Iran is the Lesser of Two Evils,” RT, July 27, 2009, http://rt.com/Politics/2009-07-27/-possible-israeli-strike-on-iran-is-the-lesser-of-two-evils-.html (Accessed February 4, 2010). It should be noted that the segment is a departure from the majority of RT programming, which takes a notably pro-Iranian government line, unless the goal was to portray Israel as the belligerent.

260“No Change Seen in Obama's Foreign Policy,” RT, July 28, 2009, http://rt.com/Politics/2009-07-28/-no-change-seen-in-obama-s-foreign-policy-.html (Accessed February 5, 2010).

261“Shi'ism Comes From Iran to Sunni Gaza,” RT, July 30, 2009, http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-07-30/shiism-iran-sunni-gaza.html (Accessed February 5, 2010).

262“10 World's Greatest Power Takeovers,” RT, July 30, 2009, http://rt.com/Politics/2009-07-30/10-worlds-greatest-power.html (Accessed February 5, 2010).

263For example, “Israeli President Points Finger at 'Iranian Threat'” (http://rt.com/Politics/2009-08-18/israeli-president-finge-iran.html ), “'US Should Assist Israel if it Attacks Iran' – Bolton” (http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-08-06/bolton-israel-attack-iran.html ).

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himself is fawning, with his supporters referred to by RT as “Iranian patriots”264; a humor piece the network also

ran described a St. Petersburg child named after the Iranian President265..

264“Iranian Patriots Have Always Been Labeled by the West,” RT, August 5, 2009, http://rt.com/Politics/2009-08-05/iranian-patriots-ahmadinejad-labeled.html (Accessed February 5, 2010).

265“St. Petersburg Boy Named After Iranian President,” RT, July 14, 2009, http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-07-14/St_Petersburg_boy_named_after_Iranian_president.html (Accessed February 5, 2010).

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Conclusion

The portrayal of Agha-Soltan's death across all three networks were effected primarily by unconscious

bias (the "2009-as-1979" effect) and by the unpredictable dissemination patterns of the internet, several

analytical methods were used. Due to the fact that Video A and Video B spread rapidly across the internet

through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and that traditional news networks aired the footage as secondary

sources, control of the narrative was lost by the traditional news networks. To put it bluntly, the general public

found themselves unintentionally writing the mass media narrative of the Iranian post-election events. This

definition of the “public” includes both the Iranians posting to web services and their audience around the world.

While the Iranians served as primary sources, they were equal partners in the creation of the narrative with their

worldwide audience.

Coverage of Agha-Soltan's death and the Iranian post-election events in general underwent

divergent framings on the BBC, Al Jazeera English and RT/Russia Today that drew equally on geopolitical

considerations, cultural considerations and the perceived worldviews of audiences while offering chronologically

similar narratives. While coverage or the lack thereof on RT was subject to framing that took place within an

explicit pro-Russian government narrative that prized the authoritarian-parliamentary political structure both Iran

and Russia share, neither the BBC nor Al Jazeera was free of ideologically, politically and/or culturally biased

framings. But the framing of Agha-Soltan and the post-election events took a different form from that expected.

Comparison of Agha-Soltan/Iran pieces by network, June 20-22, 2009

News pieces discussing Agha-Soltan, June 20-22, 2009

News pieces discussing Iran in total, June 20-22, 2009

Total percentage of Iran stories featuring Agha-Soltan by network

Al Jazeera 4 16 25.00%

BBC 1 45 0.45%

RT 0 5 0.00%

Comparison of Agha-Soltan/Iran pieces by network, June 23-September 22

News pieces discussing Agha-Soltan, June 23-September 22

News pieces discussing Iran in total, June 23-September 22

Total percentage of Iran stories featuring Agha-Soltan by network, June 23-September 22

Al Jazeera 12 99 11.88%

BBC 23 229 10.04%

RT 2 134 1.49%

Comparison of Agha-Soltan/Iran pieces by network, June 20 – September 22, 2009

News pieces discussing Agha-Soltan News pieces discussing Iran in total Total percentage of Iran stories featuring Agha-Soltan by network

Al Jazeera 16 115 13.91%

BBC 24 274 8.76%

RT 2 139 1.44%

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At the core of the differing narratives offered are two primary actors – the events in Iran themselves and

the all-encompassing panopticon of mobile camera phones among Iranians in Tehran (including both natives of

the city and Iranians who traveled there to attend demonstrations). Both the rallies, demonstrations, riots and

allegations of vote fraud offered the ingredients for the construction of multiple framings in accordance with

Goffman's definition of social framing266. In Goffman's analysis, “social frames” resulting from the sum of

experiences of past events are the primary contributing factor towards framing by individuals or institutions. The

sum of experiences of past events in contemporary Iran for the western media (and despite the self-proclaimed

third worldist stance of Al Jazeera, one must not forget that the bulk of their English-speaking staff was either

born or educated in the West) largely starts with rose-tinted memories of the Shah, fast forwards to the events of

the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent hostage crisis, continues on through the dimly remembered

Iran-Iraq war, stops to take in ayatollahs with archaic views and memories of the repression of citizens filtered

through Persepolis and Reading Lolita in Tehran before winding up with Ahmadinejad and his various

statements on the United States and Israel/Zionism. Anglo-American involvement in the 1953 coup d'etat, the

various non-Islamist streams in the 1979 revolution and the experiences of Iranians under the Islamic Republic

go largely unnoticed on the surface except for the odd talking head on Al Jazeera.

The panopticon of cameras in 2009 Tehran also colors Iranian coverage. Two videos alone exist of Agha-

Soltan's death, shot from different angles. In Video B, the presumed cameraman of Video A is himself caught on

camera. Agha-Soltan and Panahi themselves are caught on camera, marching or walking, in multiple videos of

the June 20 Iranian demonstrations as cited prior. Rather than being the result of a conspiratorial scenario a la

Press TV where Agha-Soltan's death was plotted by a western power, the wealth of footage of Agha-Soltan and

Panahi are testament to the omnipresence of mobile camera phones in Tehran's streets. In the numerous user-

generated videos of demonstrations ported to the BBC's website between June 20-22, one of the most common

site is individuals waving their arms over the crowd – mobile camera phone in hand – to jostle for the best shot.

Most of these impromptu journalists are young men. A few are young women. A handful are old; the bulk are of

a younger generation that grew up with (or at least was old enough to quickly adapt to) mobile phones. The

widespread popularity of the internet in Iran, the existence of a middle class to serve as early technological

adapters in Tehran and several other large cities, the links between Iranians and the diaspora and the early role of

the internet as a “safe space” relatively free from government intrusion all combined to guarantee that these

videos would soon find their way from mobile phones onto the internet.

This is no surprise. As of 2009, roughly 60 percent of Iran's population is under 30 years old. A

staggering 72.9 percent of the Iranian population falls within the 15-64 bracket, with 21.7 percent under 14267 –

and it is easy to imagine some of the braver 13 and 14-year-olds joining the protests. The median age of an

266Goffman.267Central Intelligence Agency, “Iran,” CIA World Factbook, February 4, 2010,

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html (Accessed February 21, 2010).

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Iranian is 27 years old, compared to a median age of 41.7 for Belgium, 34.1 for China or 38.4 for Russia. While

this population spike is in keeping in larger trends within the greater Middle East (for instance, the extremely

young median ages of both Syrians and Turks), it has unique consequences for countries dealing with internal

challenges. This has taken different forms throughout the region. While the role of the population spike in Iraq's

post-2003 political state or in Egyptian Islamist movements falls outside of the scope of this paper, it's role in

Iran is critical. In short, a critical mass of young people existed to both attend post-election events and to then

port footage of them to the internet. This critical mass was so large in size that nearly all public events taking

place in Tehran for a period of several days following the 2009 election managed to find their way onto the

internet.

The technologically adept nature of young Tehranis swayed news coverage of Agha-Soltan's death on the

BBC and Al Jazeera. With crackdowns on foreign journalists forcing the old Iran hands to either leave the

country or stay far away from demonstrations – unless shooting surreptitiously like Loizeau, which when

unsuccessful led to detainment under dangerous conditions. As a result, these networks began to rely

asymmetrically on user-generated content to depict the events in Tehran. Patterns of coverage on these two

networks largely replicated prior research conducted during the 2008 Mumbai siege by Thussu268, which

demonstrated that news networks would make use of high-quality user-generated content (video, audio,

Twitter/Facebook/blog updates) once cursory fact-checking was conducted – and that viewer/reader reaction

would be vehemently negative in the event of low-quality fact-checking resulting in quantifiable errors..

Despite their pretensions to neutrality, neither the BBC nor Al Jazeera is free of bias and preconceptions.

Both networks are state funded broadcasters, despite the differences in their relationships to their mother

country.

The BBC is a publicly owned corporation that operates under a government charter and whose day-to-

day operations are headed up by 12 state-appointed Governors. A rich variety of literature of varying grades of

credibility exists alleging systematic biases at the “Beeb.” As mentioned prior, much of this literature focuses on

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; coverage of other divisive events has also been questioned such as the Sri Lanka

conflict269 and the Northern Irish conflict270 (where, ironically enough, the BBC has been accused of a systemic

anti-Unionist bias). But the most compelling argument for non-neutrality and bias on the part of the BBC

remains their foreign services. A list of the BBC World Service's foreign language broadcasts/web presences

reads like a rundown of areas and cultures in which the United Kingdom is politically or economically involved271: Albanian, Arabic, Azeri, Bangla, Burmese, “Caribbean” (which, strangely, the BBC lists as a language272),

268Daya Thussu, “Turning Terrorism Into a Soap Opera,” British Journalism Review 20, no.1: 13-18, 2009.269Bernard Gabony, “Truth, bias and the BBC,” BBC News, May 16, 2006,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4986748.stm (Accessed February 10, 2010).270“BBC 'biased towards Republicans,” BBC News, October 27, 2009,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8328247.stm (Accessed February 10, 2010).271BBC World Service, http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/languages/index.shtml (Accessed February 10, 2010).272BBC Caribbean, http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/ (Accessed February 10, 2010).

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Chinese, French, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Nepali, Pashto,

Persian, Portuguese (with separate services for speakers of European and Brazilian Portuguese), Russian,

Serbian, Sinhala, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek and Vietnamese.

The highly selective curation of the BBC's foreign language services invites questioning. There is no

Korean service to reach North Koreans. Broadcasts in non-Russian languages of the former Soviet Union are

limited to Azeri, Kyrgyz, Pashto, Ukrainian and Uzbek. Separate services exist for the mutually intelligible

Rwandan languages of Kinyarwanda and Kirundi. Portuguese is divided into two separate services while a single

service, BBC Mundo273, broadcasts to the entirety of the Hispanophone world. In the former Yugoslavia, the

BBC Serbian service is exclusively directed at Serbs despite the language's mutual intelligibility with Bosnian,

Croatian and Montenegrin; a separate service exists for Macedonian-speakers while Slovenes are left out

entirely. No BBC service exists in Hebrew, while services exist in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. The BBC's

Iranian-language service is described with the archaic but politically loaded signifier “Persian” rather than Farsi

or Iranian. Foreign services exist for Indonesian, while Malay and Tagalog are left in the dust. Needless to say,

the BBC – and indeed, almost every broadcaster – does not incur the expenses of setting up foreign language

services altruistically. In fact, the BBC's decision in 2005 to cease broadcasting in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech,

Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai in order to finance their Arabic and Persian

television services are testament to this274 - a theory also proposed by Seib275 It stands to reason that goals

amenable to the BBC's funding source, the British government, are accomplished through the BBC's various

international services.

Al Jazeera, meanwhile, is primarily funded by Qatari Emir bin Khalifa and is headed by another member

of the Qatari royal family. The network is based in the Qatari capital of Doha and only receives approximately

40% of funding from advertisers. As mentioned prior, the exact relationship between Al Jazeera and the Qatari

government remains unclear. However, it has been established beyond a reasonable doubt that the network

exercises self-censorship on topics of interest to the Qatari royal family (ie, Al Jazeera's astounding lack of

Qatari coverage). Testimony by former Al Jazeera English employees suggests that similar self-censorship takes

place for English-language broadcasting as well276. Miles and Iskandar have both analyzed the various theories

on how Al Jazeera benefits both the Emir and Qatar in general. As Miles noted, Sheikh Hamad al-Thani was the

Qatari Deputy Minister of Information before assuming the chairmanship of Al Jazeera and foreign governments

have treated the network as an extension of the Qatari government277.

There is always the possibility that Al Jazeera's Iranian coverage may have been colored by external

273BBC Mundo, http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/ (Accessed February 10, 2010).274“BBC East Europe Voices Silent,” BBC News, December 21, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4550102.stm

(Accessed February 10, 2010). The BBC Polish service's final broadcast was “The End” by American rock band The Doors.

275Al-Jazeera Effect, 31.276Campbell.277Miles, 347.

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Qatari foreign policy demands vis a vis Iran. The Islamic Republic suspended Al Jazeera's operations in 2005

following coverage by Al Jazeera Arabic of violent protests by ethnic Arabs in Khuzestan province278. During the

2009 post-election events, Al Jazeera was not expelled from Iran but merely faced the same restrictions as other

foreign broadcasters279. Mohammed al-Kasim has argued that Al Jazeera was able to broadcast from Iran thanks

to both Qatar's good relations with Ahmadinejad and the Arabic network's continued positive portrayals of

him280. The pseudonymous author “Rob” of media analysis blog Arabic Media Shack has also argued cogently

that the combination of positive relations with the Iranian government and an aggressive policy of seeking out

Arabic-speaking Iranian guests for talk shows have colored Al Jazeera Arabic's Iran coverage281. David Pollock

and Mohammed Yaghi, meanwhile, allege Al Jazeera “tries to have it both ways” with their Iran coverage: close-

ups of Iranian demonstrators and anti-Ahmadinejad editorials were posted to Al Jazeera English, while Al

Jazeera Arabic consistently “gave pride of place to Iranian government allegations of foreign media

[interference]” during the 2009 post-election events282.

Qatari relations with the Islamic Republic are complicated and are largely interconnected with the

emirate's attempts to play it off with the United States. Although a formal ally of the United States (an American

military presence exists in Qatar, the emirate takes place in US-led security exercises and as of 2005, American

military contractor DynCorp maintained a presence there283), Qatar has strived to maintain positive relations with

Tehran. This is in keeping with the emirate's traditions; following an 1867 treaty with Great Britain that

effectively turned Qatar into a protectorate284, a succession of al-Thani emirs managed to play Britain, Persia and

the Ottoman Empire off of each other. In 2009, Iranian state broadcaster Press TV boasted of the emirate's “close

relations”285. Months after the Iranian elections, Emir al-Thani became one of the most vocal (and, some would

say, loneliest) proponents of the Iranian nuclear program in the Arab world thanks to an expensive pro-Iranian

conference in Doha286. On June 23, 2009, during the immediate post-election events, Emir bin Khalifa made

278“Iran bans Al Jazeera after riot,” BBC News, April 19, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4459033.stm (Accessed February 10, 2010).

279“Iran Holds Pro-Government Rallies,” Al Jazeera English, December 31, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/20091230104542881809.html (Accessed February 10, 2010).

280Mohammad al-Kassim, “Iran Violence Coverage Reflects Spectrum of Arab Media Bias,” World Focus, December 31, 2009, http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/12/31/iran-protest-coverage-reflects-spectrum-of-arab-media-bias/9058/ (Accessed February 10, 2010).

281“Iran Coverage at Al-Jazeera,” Arabic Media Shack, June 24, 2009, http://arabicsource.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/on-iran/ (Accessed February 10, 2010).

282David Pollock and Mohammed Yaghi, “Saudi Media Take the Lead Against Iran's Regime,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 26, 2009, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=3083 (Accessed February 10, 2010).

283Qatar Facilities, Global Security, April 26, 2005, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/qatar.htm (Accessed February 10, 2010).

284Miles, 6.285Press TV, “Qatar-Iran Ties Raise Arab Hackles,” April 1, 2009, http://www.presstv.com/classic/detail.aspx?

id=90189&sectionid=351020101 (Accessed February 10, 2010).286Borzou Daraghi, “A Show of Sympathy for Iran at a Qatar Forum,” Los Angeles Times, November 13, 2009,

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/13/world/fg-iran-debate13 (Accessed February 10, 2010).

85

public statements hailing Iran as a “democratic country” as opposed to the Arabic states287. Nonetheless, foreign

minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabr al-Thani expressly called the United States his emirate's “first

consideration” in 2002288.

Russia Today/RT is an altogether more complicated story. Hachten and Scotton have proposed a

taxonomy of conceptions of the press' role into “Authoritarian,” “Western,” “Communist,” “Revolutionary” and

“Developmental” categories289. RT's target audience, as indicated by their advertising campaigns described prior,

is primarily in the United States and United Kingdom. These countries strictly follow the Western model, which

is characterized primarily by “the right of the press to report on, comment on, and criticize its own government

without retaliation or threat of retaliation from the government.”290 However, RT aims to provide these Western

audiences with content that – while frequently interesting and unique – runs on a distinctly non-Western model.

Using the taxonomy described prior, RT would be considered “Authoritarian” in contrast to the Western model

of both the BBC and Al Jazeera English despite the fact that their content is nationalistic and jingoistic above all.

Neither the BBC nor Al Jazeera is explicitly pro-British or pro-Qatari. However, RT consciously propagates a

pro-Kremlin worldview that colors nearly all content produced by the network. This bias even slips into stories

having nothing to do with Russia at all. In the Iran stories not related to Agha-Soltan described prior, the post-

election crisis takes place in a world filled with dark conspiracies propagated by foreign powers. Frequently used

interview guests such as Paul Craig Roberts and Wayne Madsen propagate the theory that the situation after the

Iranian election was the fault of everyone from the United States to Israel to George Soros. The use of the term

“Green Revolution” by an American neo-Conservative in a posting on a right-wing website is used as proof of a

foreign plot to destabilize Iran. The Anglo-American coup d'etat of 1953 that removed Mossadegh from power is

freely mentioned by anchors and guests, but the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran in World War II is strangely

never brought up.

Despite the fact that Agha-Soltan's death was one of the largest news stories of the year thanks to the

factors described prior, she barely made a dent in RT's Iranian coverage. Apart from a few fleeting mentions and

two person-in-the-street segments hosted by an American freelancer – that incidentally portrayed Agha-Soltan in

a negative light – she barely existed for RT. However, as mentioned, Iran's tensions with Israel, the Iranian

nuclear program and Russia's positive relations with Ahmadinejad were mentioned extremely frequently. While

Owen praises Russia Today's alternative viewpoint on world news291, the sheer oddity of that alternative in its

fondness for overreaching conspiracy theories appears to be an obstacle in the network's propagation of Russian

public diplomacy in the Anglophone world.

287Pollock, Yaghi.288Miles, 10.289William Hachten, James Scotton, The World News Prism: Global Information in a Satellite Age (Wiley-Blackwell,

2006), 16.290Ibid., 19.291Owen and Purdey, 114.

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Seib has previously cited the confused portrayal of the United States by Russian television during the

2003 invasion of Iraq292 and this seems to be the case in 2009 as well. While Russia is required to share good

relations with the United States due to the latter's hegemony on the world stage, Russia is rapidly regaining the

influence they lost following the implosion of the Soviet Union and the Russia-dominated Soviet sphere of

influence. Their Iran coverage is indicative of this in its negative view of the protesters and positive view of

Ahmadinejad as opposed to both the BBC and Al Jazeera English. RT's role in Russian public diplomacy is

inescapable. Brown has documented RT's aggressive hiring of foreign public relations consultants for Russia

Today's 2005 launch293 and the massive amount of funding devoted to RT294 - along with the launch of their

Russian and Spanish channels - is testament to the importance Putin and Medvedev place on them295.

It is no surprise that Agha-Soltan's death was captured by multiple cameras and was quickly

disseminated across the internet. The Tehrani panopticon captured dozens of deaths in the days after the Iranian

election that were posted online. But out of all of them, only Agha-Soltan's become the iconic image of the post-

election events.

The fact that Agha-Soltan was a photogenic young woman certainly had something to do with this.

However, she was not the only attractive female Iranian whose death was captured on camera. The swiftness and

aggressiveness of authorities in Tehran in repressing any disturbances resulted in a high body count296. Because

the bulk of these deaths took place in public, in the camera's gaze, Facebook and YouTube were soon flooded

with atrocity videos. Those demonstrators – and, despite the confused narrative of the Agha-Soltan case, she was

one of them – had the ironic “good” luck to die in public. The demonstrators who passed away while in Iran's

police stations, jails, prisons and hospitals died out of the camera's reach and, in the eyes of the BBC and Al

Jazeera, were that much more anonymous.

Two separate photographers that we know of chronicled Agha-Soltan's dying moments. Neither the

BBC, Al Jazeera, nor RT seems to have recognized that. These two cameramen, filming from separate angles and

with relatively cheap mobile camera phones, captured her final moments with unsurpassed clarity. Agha-Soltan's

death occurred on a sunny summer day at 7:05PM297, in the last hours of daylight in Tehran. The resolution of the

mobile camera phones used was only clear because of the close range (< 20 feet) with which Agha-Soltan's death

was captured. Had she been shot two hours later, as twilight descended on Tehran, circumstances would have

292“Hegemonic No More,” 609.293Brown, 180.294Parsons.295Cull.296Charlie Strom, Rob Francis, Maseh Zarif. “Unrest in Iran: Incident Statistics and Map for Protests, Arrests and Deaths,”

American Enterprise Institute, July 31, 2009, http://www.irantracker.org/analysis/unrest-iran-incident-statistics-and-map-protests-arrests-and-deaths (Accessed February 19, 2010). No definitive source for Iran casualty figures exists. However, this list right-wing American Enterprise Institute thinktank offers references and verifiable footnotes from legitimate sources for their claim of 32 corroborated deaths and 152 uncorroborated deaths in demonstrations from June 13 – July 31, 2009.

297“hamedfrt,” YouTube.

87

been much different.

These two cameramen, presumably untrained, captured Agha-Soltan's death as any civilian pressed into

capturing a historic event would. The cameras are jerky and the angles change suddenly. Sometimes a finger

slides over the lens. You can see the photographer jostle for a clearer view of a dying woman. The individual

efforts are basic and improvised, without any polish. But collectively the twin cameras capture a multiplicity of

images of a violent death rife with symbolism.

The bullet that killed Agha-Soltan pierced her lung. Her mouth and nose became flooded with blood as a

result. Agha-Soltan's dying moments must have been pure agony. Not only did blood flow from her bullet

wound; it flowed down her face as well. The twin cameramen captured an extraordinarily bloody death, replete

with a doctor trying frantically to assist her. The listener can hear people in the background shouting for Agha-

Soltan. Agha-Soltan lies still, in pain, while the action swirls around her. For a viewer steeped in any number of

Muslim or Christian traditions of martyrdom iconography, the resulting image is stunning.

Most of the other death videos from Tehran were blurry and of poor quality. Unlike Agha-Soltan's, the

majority of Tehran's public deaths in the post-election events appear to have occurred as the result of beatings or

close-range bullet wounds. Amateur mobile phone camera users had to keep a distance out of necessity; this

resulted in poor image quality for the bulk of the Tehran death videos. Because the apparent Basij who shot

Agha-Soltan fired from some physical distance away from her, seemingly unprompted, and then departed the

immediate vicinity (while, as we have seen, being trapped in the area), it became physically safe to video Agha-

Soltan at a reasonable range.

Dissemination of Agha-Soltan's death videos was quick and worldwide. The factors listed above

guaranteed that they would be quickly used by news agencies. Using the consensus timeframe that both Video A298 and Video B299 first appeared on the internet on during what was the evening of June 20, 2009 in Iran and late

afternoon GMT, the implications are staggering. Al Jazeera's first mention of Agha-Soltan occurred less than 24

hours after the first upload of the videos and the BBC's first mention occurred approximately 26 hours later.

In the days, weeks and months that followed, multiple narratives of Agha-Soltan's life were constructed.

Her name was spelled variously as Agha-Soltan, Agha Soltan, Agha-Soltani and Soltani. At various times she

was a music student, a philosophy student and a travel agent. Sometimes she was a teenager and sometimes she

was a 27 year old. The fact that she was divorced was rarely reported. Neither was the fact that her boyfriend,

Caspian Makan, who suffered dearly at the hands of Iranian authorities, was much older. Neither were her

difficulties as a divorcee from a lower middle-class socioeconomic background in Tehran.

According to the BBC, through the news reports and documentaries they chose to air, Agha-Soltan was a

martyr. A full picture of her life was presented through the Ronachan documentary, but news reports about Agha-

Soltan constructed a martyr narrative steeped in a liberal, British sensibility. Most pictures portrayed her without

298ibid.299 “LastFreedomNet,” YouTube.

88

a headscarf. The words of Hejazi, an Iranian who chose to make his home in Britain and who speaks fluent

English, became the source of the predominant soundbites used by the network. Agha-Soltan is invariably

described as a “young woman.” Although the BBC avoided the worst excesses of the mawkish newspapers of

the United Kingdom, who called her the “Angel of Iran,”300 their portrayal was still flawed by an overly-heavily

reliance on interviews with Hejazi and Rostami-Motlagh.

In the narrative promoted by Al Jazeera, Agha-Soltan was caught between pan-Muslim, pan-Arab and

third worldist framings. The network's coverage of the “music student”'s death was interpreted and reinterpreted

through – at various times – Rinnawi's pan-Arab formulation and Cherribi's pan-Muslim formulation. As the El

Sherbini episode of The Listening Post, the Riz Khan episodes and the Abdo analysis proved, Al Jazeera's

portrayal of Agha-Soltan was just as filtered and tailored towards its perceived audience as the BBC.

The reframings and reformulations of the Agha-Soltan death video ultimately bring to mind Michel

Foucault's description of photography as “the normalizing gaze” of society – a “surveillance that makes it

possible to qualify, to classify and to punish. It establishes over individuals a visibility through which one

differentiates and judges them.”301 While Foucault's words were intended for a history of prisons, they apply

equally to the impromptu universally-accessible surveillance created by the multiplicity of mobile camera

phones in 2009 Iran. For Agha-Soltan, a woman who was caught up in one of the most important events in her

country's history, she ended up gaining ultimate visibility only through death.

300Courtney.301Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage, 1995), 25.

89

Appendix

Table BBC-1: Iran Stories From news.bbc.co.uk, June 20-22, 2009

06/20/09 06/21/09 06/22/09

“Iranians Send BBC Demo Footage”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111233.stm

“Huge Rally Defies Ayatollah”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111123.stm

“Riot Police Break Up Tehran Rally”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113982.stm

“In Pictures: Tehran Unrest”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111187.stm

“Protest Held Over Iran Elections”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8111757.stm

“BBC – Today”http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8112000/8112232.stm

“BBC Eyewitness: 'Security Everywhere'”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111152.stm

“'Ten Killed' in Iran Clashes”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111504.stm

“New Questions Over Iran Results”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/8113068.stm

“BBC – Today”http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8110000/8110558.stm

“Miliband Denies Iran 'Meddling'”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8111558.stm

“Embassy Staff Families Leave Iran”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8113353.stm

“Key Excerpts: “Khamenei Speech”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110623.stm

“The Consequences of Engaging Iran”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111290.stm

“Death Video Woman 'Targeted By Militia'”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8113552.stm

“Q&A: Tehran Unrest”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111065.stm

“Iran Video Shows Protest Fires”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111446.stm

“Iranian Views: Tension Rising”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8112909.stm

“From Our Own Correspondent: Iranian Protest Parallels With 1979”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8109101.stm

“Reporter's Log: Iran Upheaval”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8105207.stm

“Analysis: Iran Splits Widen”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113077.stm

“Your Reaction to Iranian Protests”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8111009.stm

“Video Shows Fierce Iran Clashes”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111670.stm

“Iran Intercepting Mobile Calls”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8114002.stm

“US Urges Iran to End 'Violence'”http://news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/i/bbc_news/mid_east/811/81112/story8111242.shtml

“Freedom Craving 'Fueling Iran Unrest'”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111695.stm

“West 'Seeks Iran Disintegration'”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112341.stm

“Iran Police Warn Against Protests”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110899.stm

“Iran TV Says 10 Die in Protests”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111352.stm

“Examining Footage From Iran”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112049.stm

“Obama Says World is Watching Iran”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110441.stm

“Bahrain Closes Paper in Iran Row”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8112993.stm

“Riot Police Tackle Iran Protests”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middl

“Police Break Up New Tehran Rally”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/811281

90

e_east/8111098.stm 2.stm“Suspicions Behind Iran Poll Doubts”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110877.stm

“Iran Silences Street Protesters”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112036.stm

“Iran Police Clash With Protesters”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8110582.stm

“Q&A: Iran Election Aftermath”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8101621.stm

“Tear Gas Fired at Iran Protest”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110993.stm

“Hi-Tech Helps Iran Monitoring”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8112550.stm“Iran Asks BBC Reporter To Leave”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111638.stm

Table BBC-2: Stories Featuring Neda Agha-Soltan from news.bbc.co.uk, June 23 – September 22,

2009

Key: “Cursory” - Mentions of Agha-Soltan in one or two sentences.

“Medium” - At least one paragraph devoted to Agha-Soltan

“In-depth” - Article centers around Agha-Soltan

Article Name, Date & URL Portrayal of Agha-Soltan

Sample Description

“Cool Reception for New Speaker” (Newsbrief), June 23, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8114108.stm

Medium “The Independent calls Neda Agha-Soltan, shot dead in Tehran on Saturday, "the face of the Iranian revolution".”

“End Iran Violence, UN Chief Urges,” June 23, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8114085.stm

Medium “The fiance of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose violent death during clashes in Tehran on Saturday was recorded on video and uploaded to the internet, has described the events leading up to her shooting in an interview for BBC Persian TV.”

“Iranian Views: 'Critical Times',” June 25, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8118616.stm

Cursory “Another email to BBC Persian reports that Iranian news is claiming Israelis killed Neda Agha Soltan, the woman who was shot dead in Tehran protests on Saturday.”

“'She Died in Less Than a Minute',” June 25, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119741.stm

In-depth “Dr Arash Hejazi told the BBC's Rachel Harvey he had been standing very close to Neda when she was shot, and he had never seen an injury like it.”

“The Man Who Tried to Save Neda,” June 25, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119658.stm

In-depth “One of the stand-out images of the protests in Iran is of a young woman dying from gunshot wounds on the streets of Tehran. Neda Soltan was shot while attending a protest, and the footage shows her lying on the ground in a pool of blood and two men trying to save her.”

“Iran Doctor Tells of Neda's Death,” June 25, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119713.stm

In-depth “Video of Ms Soltan's death was posted on the internet and images of her have become a rallying point for Iranian opposition supporters around the world.”

91

“Iran Views: Anger Remains,” June 29, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8121392.stm

Cursory “This regime is unbelievably brutal against its own people. It gunned down 19 people just for protesting peacefully against an election. Innocent people, like Neda, shot dead.”

“Ahmadinejad Calls for Neda Probe,” June 29, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8125181.stm

In-depth “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for an investigation into the death of a young woman who has become an icon of opposition protests.”

“The Buzz: Neda: A Case of Mistaken Identity,” July 3, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8129083.stm

In-depth “Neda has also become a trending topic - one of the most repeated words on Twitter - and on Facebook there are many groups dedicated to the woman who has been dubbed the "Angel of Iran".”

“Ahmadinejad Riles Powerful Allies,” July 27, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8171384.stm

Cursory “Thursday will be the anniversary of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young Iranian woman who has become a symbol of the protest movement.”

“US Urges Iran to Free Prisoners,” July 29, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8175702.stm

Cursory “Among the graves they intend to visit is the burial site of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young women who became an icon of the opposition movement after video of her death was posted on the internet.”

“Today: Thursday 30 July 2009,” July 30, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8175000/8175771.stm

In-Depth “The mourning ceremony of Nedha Soltan, who was killed in opposition protests following the election in Iran, is to take place.”

“Mother's Tribute to Shot Iranian Woman,” July 30, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176053.stm

In-Depth “The mother of a young woman who was killed during post-election protests in Iran has paid tribute to her daughter, saying she was ''not political'' and did not belong to any party or group.”

“Digital Planet: The Rise of Iran's Citizen Journalists,” July 30, 2009 (originally aired July 28, 2009)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176957.stm

Medium “It has been 40 days since Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman, was killed during an anti-government protest in Tehran.”

“Neda's Mother Talks of Her Heartbreak,” July 30, 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/8176029.stm

In-Depth “The mother of Neda Soltan says she's waiting for her daughter's killer to be brought to justice.”

“Iran Police Clash With Mourners,” July 30, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8175764.stm

Medium “So the opposition leaders said they would join Neda's family at her graveside at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery.”

“Interview: Mother's Tribute to Neda,” July 30, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176098.stm

In-Depth “The mother of Neda Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old Iranian protester whose death on 20 June was captured on mobile phone video, has spoken at length to the BBC World Service.”

“Iran Witnesses: Neda Memorial,” July 31, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176961.stm

In-Depth “Three Iranians describe police attempts to break up demonstrations at a cemetery in Tehran, 40 days after the death of Neda Agha-Soltan.”

“Iran Puts 100 Protesters on Trial,” August 1, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8179470.stm

Cursory “Clashes have continued since his election, most recently during mourning to mark 40 days since the death of Neda Agha Soltan who was shot as she watched protests on 20 June.”

92

“In Pictures: Iran's Election Crisis,” August 5, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8184928.stm

Cursory “At the end of July state TV said police used tear gas to disperse crowds from the grave of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman whose death became a symbol of post-election unrest.”

“Profile: Neda Agha Soltan,” July 30, 2009http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/middle_east/8176158.stm

In-Depth “Neda Agha Soltan's death during a Tehran street protest, graphically captured on a mobile phone, transformed her into a global symbol of Iranian opposition.”

Table BBC-3: Formatting of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: “News” - Straightforward news story, “Feature” - Feature/expository story, “Op-Ed” - Opinion Piece,

“Interview” - Interview-based piece w/ two or more participants, “Photo Gallery” - Still-photo based collection

of visual news, “User-generated news” - Content consisting exclusively of edited information received from

social media, “Hybrid” - Multi-genre mixture with specific explanation noted, “Other” - Miscellaneous with

specific explanation noted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111233.stm (Iranians send BBC demo footage, June 20, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110993.stm (Tear gas fired at Iran protest, June 20, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111187.stm (In Pictures: Tehran protest, June 20, 2009)

Photo gallery

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111152.stm (BBC eyewitness: 'Security everywhere', June 20, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8110000/8110558.stm (Today: Saturday 20 June 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110623.stm (Key Excerpts: Khamenei Speech, Saturday, June 20, 2009)

Miscellaneous (Excerpts from Jumu'ah sermon by Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khameini of June 19, 2009)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111065.stm (Q&A: Tehran unrest, June 20, 2009)

Feature

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8109101.stm (Iranian protest parallels with 1979, June 20, 2009)

Op-Ed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8111009.stm (Your reaction to Iranian protests, June 20, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/i/bbc_news/mid_east/811/81112/story8111242.shtml (US urges Iran to end 'violence', June 20, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110899.stm (Iranian police warn against protests, June 20, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110441.stm (Obama says world is watching Iran, June 20, 2009)

News

93

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111098.stm (Riot police tackle Iran protests, June 20, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110877.stm (Suspicions behind Iran poll doubts, June 20, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8110582.stm (Iran police clash with protesters, June 20, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111123.stm (Huge rally defies Ayatollah, June 20, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8111757.stm (Protest held over Iran election, June 21, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111504.stm ('Ten killed' in Iran clashes, June 21, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8111558.stm (Miliband denies Iran 'meddling', June 21, 2009

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111290.stm (The consequences of engaging Iran, June 21, 2009)

Op-Ed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111446.stm (Iran video shows protest fires, June 21, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8105207.stm (Reporters' log: Iran upheaval, June 21, 2009)

Miscellaneous (Group blog by London- and Tehran-based BBC correspondents)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111670.stm (Video shows fierce Iran clashes, June 21, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111695.stm (Freedom craving 'fuelling Iran unrest', June 21, 2009)

Op-ed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111352.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June 21, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113982.stm (Riot police break up Tehran rally, June 21, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8112000/8112232.stm (Obama has 'accentuated Iran's internal rifts', June 22, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/8113068.stm (New questions over Iran election results, June 22, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8113353.stm (Embassy staff families leave Iran, June 22, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8113552.stm (Death video woman 'targeted by militia', June 22, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8112909.stm (Iranian views: tension rising, June 22, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113077.stm (Analysis: Iran splits widen, June 22, 2009)

Op-ed

94

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8114002.stm (Iran intercepting mobile calls, June 22, 2009)

Feature

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112341.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June 22, 2009

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112049.stm (Examining footage from Tehran, June 22, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8112993.stm (Bahrain closes paper in Iran row, June 22, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112812.stm (Police break up new Tehran rally, June 22, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112036.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June 22, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8101621.stm (Q&A: Iran election aftermath, June 22, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8112550.stm (Hi-tech helps Iran monitoring, June 22, 2009)

Feature

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111638.stm (Iran asks BBC reporter to leave, June 22, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8114108.stm (Cool reception for new speaker, June 23, 2009)

Miscellaneous (Roundup of headlines in British newspapers)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8114085.stm (End Iran violence, UN chief urges, June 23, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8118616.stm (Iranian views: 'Critical Times', June 25, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119741.stm ('She died in less than a minute', June 25, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119658.stm (The man who tried to save Neda, June 25, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119713.stm (Iran doctor tells of Neda death, June 25, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8121392.stm (Iran views: Anger remains, June 29, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8125181.stm (Ahmadinejad calls for Neda probe, June 29, 2009

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8129083.stm (The buzz: Neda – a case of mistaken identity, July 3, 2009)

Feature

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8171384.stm (Ahmadinejad riles powerful allies, July 27, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8175702.stm (US urges Iran to free prisoners, July 29, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8175000/8175771.stm (Today: Thursday 30 July 2009)

Interview

95

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176053.stm (Mother's tribute to shot Iranian woman, July 30, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176957.stm (The rise of Iran's citizen journalists, July 30, 2009)

Feature

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/8176029.stm (Neda's mother talks of her heartbreak, July 30, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8175764.stm (Iran police clash with mourners, July 30, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176961.stm (Iran witnesses: Neda's memorial, July 31, 2009)

User-generated news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176098.stm (Interview: Mother's tribute to Neda, July 30, 2009)

Interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8179470.stm (Iran puts 100 protesters on trial, August 1, 2009)

News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8184928.stm (In pictures: Iran's election crisis, August 5, 2009)

Photo gallery

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/middle_east/8176158.stm (Profile: Neda Agha Soltan, July 30, 2009)

Feature

Table BBC-4: Framing of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: First column - “Pro” - Narrative overtly sympathetic to either Agha-Soltan, participants in the Iranian

street events of June 2009, or both. “Neutral”- Narrative neutral to either Agha-Soltan, participants in the Iranian

street events of June 2009, or both. “Against” - Narrative overtly hostile to either Agha-Soltan, participants in

the Iranian street events of June 2009, or both. Second column – Representative keywords or key phrases from

story used to make this determination.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111233.stm (Iranians send BBC demo footage, June 20, 2009)

Neutral “Protests," “disputed election result”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110993.stm (Tear gas fired at Iran protest, June 20, 2009)

Neutral “"Protesters demonstrating," "Iran's election result"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111187.stm (In Pictures: Tehran protest, June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Unrest," "demonstrators, "rigged presidential election results," "clashed," "big rally," "supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi," "protesters,""demonstrators defied an ultimatum"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111152.stm (BBC eyewitness: 'Security everywhere', June 20, 2009)

Pro "Massive security operation to prevent opposition protests over disputed election results,""Basijis - militamen who look like street toughs," "men with clubs who lounged in thick groups," "all this was happening against the background of a city open for business," "demonstration," "demonstrators,"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8110000/8110558.stm (Today: Saturday 20 June 2009)

Neutral "Protest leaders," "rallies, 'disputed election results"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110623.stm (Key Excerpts: Khamenei Speech, Saturday, June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Unrest," "disputed election results"

96

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111065.stm (Q&A: Tehran unrest, June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Unrest," "opposition supporters," "rally," "bitterly-contested presidential election result," "crackdown," "demonstrations," "protesters"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8109101.stm (Iranian protest parallels with 1979, June 20, 2009)

Pro "Unprecedented mass protests," "demonstrators," "crowds with their green ribbons," "liberal, middle-class, Westernised people joined in the marches.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8111009.stm (Your reaction to Iranian protests, June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Protesters," "crackdown," "demonstration against the reelection of President Ahmadinejad," "protest," "rally"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/i/bbc_news/mid_east/811/81112/story8111242.shtml (US urges Iran to end 'violence', June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Clashes," "protesters," "rallies"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110899.stm (Iranian police warn against protests, June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Protesters," "rallies"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110441.stm (Obama says world is watching Iran, June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Post-election demonstrations," "protest leaders"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111098.stm (Riot police tackle Iran protests, June 20, 2009)

Pro "Protests," 'running battles," "demonstrations", "Iranian government knows creating martyrs is counterproductive"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110877.stm (Suspicions behind Iran poll doubts, June 20, 2009)

Pro "Opposition supporters say the election numbers do not add up," "Mr. Mousavi's largely young, technically savvy supporters"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8110582.stm (Iran police clash with protesters, June 20, 2009)

Pro "Protesters," "security forces," "Basijis wore riot helmets and carried big clubs," "He alleged the vote [...] was rigged"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111123.stm (Huge rally defies Ayatollah, June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Huge crowds," "demonstrate," "protest"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8111757.stm (Protest held over Iran election, June 21, 2009)

Neutral "Protest," "demonstrators"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111504.stm ('Ten killed' in Iran clashes, June 21, 2009)

Pro “"Protests," "clashes," "heavy restrictions have been placed on the BBC and other foreign news organisations in Iran" (Pro based on presenter's body language on camera)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8111558.stm (Miliband denies Iran 'meddling', June 21, 2009

Neutral "Protests," "disputed elections," "protesters," "disputed presidential elections," cites 'terrorist groups' and 'rioters' in quotation marks from Iranian state television

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111290.stm (The consequences of engaging Iran, June 21, 2009)

Pro "Demonstrators," "feared Basij paramilitary," "protesters"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111446.stm (Iran video shows protest fires, June 21, 2009)

Neutral "Protests," "The latest video shows a bus on fire and what appears to be a stand-off between protesters and security forces on motorbikes."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8105207.stm (Reporters' log: Iran upheaval, June 21, 2009)

Pro "Turmoil," "disputed results," "relentless pressure on journalists," "crisis"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111670.stm (Video shows fierce Iran clashes, June 21, 2009)

Neutral "Clashes," "protesters"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111695.stm (Freedom craving 'fuelling Iran unrest', June 21, 2009)

Pro "Velvet rebellion," “The only people I saw 'stirring' violence were the riot police and the volunteer Basiji militia," "baton-wielding riot police"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111352.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June 21, 2009)

Pro "Iran's most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution," "activists," "protest leader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi," "brief graphic video clip appearing to show a teenage girl dying from a wound, has fueled

97

anti-government feeling,"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113982.stm (Riot police break up Tehran rally, June 21, 2009)

Neutral "Opposition rally," "unapproved rallies"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8112000/8112232.stm (Obama has 'accentuated Iran's internal rifts', June 22, 2009)

Neutral "Situation in Iran"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/8113068.stm (New questions over Iran election results, June 22, 2009)

Neutral No keywords (Radio presentation by Thomas Rintoul of University of St. Andrew's)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8113353.stm (Embassy staff families leave Iran, June 22, 2009)

Neutral "Political unrest," "mass unrest," "protests," "alleging vote-rigging"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8113552.stm (Death video woman 'targeted by militia', June 22, 2009)

Pro "Young Iranian woman," "allegedly shot by pro-government militia"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8112909.stm (Iranian views: tension rising, June 22, 2009)

Pro "Opposition supporters" (Pro based on choice of user-generated content in story)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113077.stm (Analysis: Iran splits widen, June 22, 2009)

Pro "Street protests," "protest," "demonstrations," "demonstrators," "irregularities"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8114002.stm (Iran intercepting mobile calls, June 22, 2009)

Neutral “Iranian regime”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112341.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June 22, 2009

Neutral No keywords

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112049.stm (Examining footage from Tehran, June 22, 2009)

Neutral “Pro-reformist protesters"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8112993.stm (Bahrain closes paper in Iran row, June 22, 2009)

Neutral "Iran's election crisis"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112812.stm (Police break up new Tehran rally, June 22, 2009)

Pro "Opposition rally," "protesters," "unapproved rallies," "protests," "street protests" "Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose violent death during clashes in Tehran on Saturday was recorded on video and uploaded to the internet"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112036.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June 22, 2009)

Neutral “Mass protests," "disputed election," "believe the election was rigged," "protesters and police clashed," "protesters"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8101621.stm (Q&A: Iran election aftermath, June 22, 2009)

Pro "street protests," "protesters," "protests," “Millions of Iranian simply did not believe the result,” “the way the result was announced was very unusual”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8112550.stm (Hi-tech helps Iran monitoring, June 22, 2009)

Pro "Iran is well known for filtering the net," "protests," “Iran is effectively reading every message,” “Women's rights activists arrested in the nation had been shown transcripts of instant messages they had sent”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111638.stm (Iran asks BBC reporter to leave, June 22, 2009)

Neutral "Protests about the presidential election"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8114108.stm (Cool reception for new Speaker, June 23, 2009)

Neutral "The face of a young woman killed during the protests in Iran is the main picture on some front pages"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8114085.stm (End Iran violence, UN chief urges, June 23, 2009)

Neutral "Threat and use of violence by authorities in Iran," "rally," "post-election violence," "protesters,""Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose violent death during clashes in Tehran," "clashes"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/811861 Pro "Iranian authorities' clampdown on protests," "those still prepared to demonstrate," "separate accounts create a picture of the Iranian

98

6.stm (Iranian views: 'Critical Times', June 25, 2009) authorities regaining control of the streets through fear and violence," "pro-reform demonstrations"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119741.stm ('She died in less than a minute', June 25, 2009)

Pro "Protester," "shot protester Neda Soltan in Tehran," "Neda"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119658.stm (The man who tried to save Neda, June 25, 2009)

Pro "Protests," "young woman dying from gunshot wounds," "Neda Soltan was shot while attending a protest, and the footage shows her lying on the ground in a pool of blood and two men trying to save her"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119713.stm (Iran doctor tells of Neda death, June 25, 2009)

Pro “Bled to death on a street in Tehran," "ran to Neda Agha-Soltan's aid after seeing she had been shot in the chest," "Video of Ms. Soltan's death was posted on the internet and images of her have become a rallying point for Iranian opposition supporters around the world"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8121392.stm (Iran views: Anger remains, June 29, 2009)

Pro “Protesters” (Pro based on choice of user-generated content in story)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8125181.stm (Ahmadinejad calls for Neda probe, June 29, 2009

Neutral "Death of a young woman who has become an icon of opposition protests," "He urged Iran's judicial authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan," "Mr Ahmadinejad said there were many fabricated reports in the foreign media about the shooting of the 26-year-old," "Eyewitnesses reportedly said a member of a government militia had shot her”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8129083.stm (The buzz: Neda – a case of mistaken identity, July 3, 2009)

Pro "Neda Agha Soltan, has turned into an internet phenomenon after mobile phone footage of her bleeding to death was published and shared all over the world," "on Facebook there are many groups dedicated to the woman who has been dubbed the 'Angel of Iran'"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8171384.stm (Ahmadinejad riles powerful allies, July 27, 2009)

Pro "The row over Iran's disputed election," "election row," "there are many in Iran who see Mr Ahmadinejad's re-election as a coup d'etat, in which the real winners were the Revolutionary Guards," "opposition supporters," "Neda Agha-Soltan, the young Iranian woman who has become a symbol of the protest movement"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8175702.stm (US urges Iran to free prisoners, July 29, 2009)

Pro "Post-poll protests," "political prisoners," "people detained during the protests," "Neda Agha-Soltan, a young women who became an icon of the opposition movement after video of her death was posted on the internet," "reforminst candidates say the June poll was rigged"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8175000/8175771.stm (Today: Thursday 30 July 2009)

Pro "Mourning ceremony of Nedha Soltan, who was killed in opposition protests following the election in Iran, is to take place," "significance of the death that was seen by millions of people around the world after a video of her death was posted on the internet"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176053.stm (Mother's tribute to shot Iranian woman, July 30, 2009)

Pro "Young woman who was killed during post-election protests in Iran," "opposition leaders"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176957.stm (The rise of Iran's citizen journalists, July 30, 2009)

Pro "Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman, was killed during an anti-government protest in Tehran," "disputed election results"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/8176029.stm (Neda's mother talks of her heartbreak, July 30, 2009)

Pro "The mother of Neda Soltan says she's waiting for her daughter's killer to be brought to justice"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8175764.stm (Iran police clash with mourners, July 30, 2009)

Pro "Post-election violence," "Neda Agha Soltan, whose death became a symbol of post-election unrest," "the crowd," "demonstrators," "opposition protests," "political demonstrations," "That is exactly what happened during the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago in a cycle that helped lead to the downfall of the Shah"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176961.stm (Iran witnesses: Neda's memorial, July 31, 2009)

Neutral "Demonstrations," "Neda Agha-Soltan - the young woman who has become a symbol of the opposition cause in Iran"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176098.stm (Interview: Mother's tribute to Neda, July 30, 2009)

Pro "Protester," "Neda Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old Iranian protester whose death on 20 June was captured on mobile phone video"

99

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8179470.stm (Iran puts 100 protesters on trial, August 1, 2009)

Pro "Post-election violence," "opposition reform movement," "allegations of vote-rigging," "opposition leaders," "protests,"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8184928.stm (In pictures: Iran's election crisis, August 5, 2009)

Pro "Supporters of all sides," "claiming the vote was rigged, protesters took to the streets," ""large protests," "days of violence and the death of at least 30 people," "amateur footage emerged showing pro-government militia apparently firing at opposition demonstrators in Tehran," "protests," "Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman whose death became a symbol of post-election unrest," "the crisis"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/middle_east/8176158.stm (Profile: Neda Agha Soltan, July 30, 2009)

Pro "Neda Agha Soltan's death during a Tehran street protest, graphically captured on a mobile phone, transformed her into a global symbol of Iranian opposition," "Neda died within seconds, her final moments filmed by a passer-by on a mobile phone," "images of Neda's death were being beamed around the world"

Table BBC-5: Sourcing of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: First column – Explicitly stated sources used for written/spoken narrative in each individual piece of

content.. Second column – Sources and description of graphic/video imagery in each individual piece of content.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111233.stm (Iranians send BBC demo footage, June 20, 2009)

No non-BBC sources cited Six user-generated clips of mobile phone footage from Tehran “demonstrations” sent to BBC Persian

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110993.stm (Tear gas fired at Iran protest, June 20, 2009)

No non-BBC sources cited User-generated video sent to BBC Persian with cameraperson's narration in Persian audible

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111187.stm (In Pictures: Tehran protest, June 20, 2009)

No non-BBC sources cited 4 unattributed images, 1 from Agence France Presse. Images are of protesters massed on a Tehran street, uniformed/helmeted men on red motorbikes, stone-throwing "demonstrators," bus burning in Tehran

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111152.stm (BBC eyewitness: 'Security everywhere', June 20, 2009)

Testimony by unnamed BBC correspondent AFP image of “demonstrators”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8110000/8110558.stm (Today: Saturday 20 June 2009)

Interview with Jon Leyne No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110623.stm (Key Excerpts: Khamenei Speech, Saturday, June 20, 2009)

Translation of a sermon at Friday prayers on June 19 by Khamenei

No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111065.stm (Q&A: Tehran unrest, June 20, 2009)

Jon Leyne answers emailed questions from readers

No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8109101.stm (Iranian protest parallels with 1979, June 20, 2009)

John Simpson Getty image of protester with a green ribbon and tape-covered mouth holding photo of protesters, Getty image of a demonstration, AP image of Ahmadinejad, AFP of Khamenei and AP image of Tianemen square.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8111009.stm (Your reaction to Iranian protests, June 20, 2009)

Unverified reader emails from "people who say they were there"

Unattributed image of police in Tehran on motorbikes

100

http://news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/i/bbc_news/mid_east/811/81112/story8111242.shtml (US urges Iran to end 'violence', June 20, 2009)

Unnamed BBC reporter in Tehran and Jon Donnison in Washington cited

Unattributed image of protester

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110899.stm (Iranian police warn against protests, June 20, 2009)

Interview with Tehran Province Police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan

Video of Ahmad Reza Radan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110441.stm (Obama says world is watching Iran, June 20, 2009)

Statement by Barack Obama to CBS, Robert Gibbs, Amnesty International, Jonathan Beale, Khamenei sermon

Unattributed stock image of Obama and Getty image of protest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111098.stm (Riot police tackle Iran protests, June 20, 2009)

Jon Leyne-hosted video report BBC video of police/militia in the street, opposition protester injuries, Basij attacking cars, live rounds fired on protesters, various protest scenes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110877.stm (Suspicions behind Iran poll doubts, June 20, 2009)

Khamanei, Mehdi Khalaji of Washington Institute for Near East Policy, journalist Ali Pahlavan, Juan Cole, Arshin Adib Moghaddem of SOAS, poll by Terror Free Tomorrow

2 AFP images of protesters, AFP image of voters, graphic of election results province by province

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8110582.stm (Iran police clash with protesters, June 20, 2009)

Unnamed BBC correspondent, user-generated video of tear gas being fired at a protest, Obama, Mousavi and Khamenei, Associated Press, Iranian state television

User-generated video of tear gas being fired at a protest, map of Tehran protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111123.stm (Huge rally defies Ayatollah, June 20, 2009)

User-generated video of massive protests User-generated video of massive protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8111757.stm (Protest held over Iran election, June 21, 2009)

Iranian state television, Jon Leyne cited No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111504.stm ('Ten killed' in Iran clashes, June 21, 2009)

Iranian state television, Jeremy Bowen, alleged eyewitness reports emailed to BBC cited

Still images from user-generated video of Tehran protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8111558.stm (Miliband denies Iran 'meddling', June 21, 2009

David Miliband, Manoucher Mottaki, Khamenei, Iranian state television cited

BBC image of Miliband

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111290.stm (The consequences of engaging Iran, June 21, 2009)

Obama CBS interview, John Kerry, Philip Crowley, unnamed Iranian-American diplomat, Karim Sadjadpour (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) cited

AFP image of Iran protest with English-language posters

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111446.stm (Iran video shows protest fires, June 21, 2009)

User-generated video of fires in Tehran User-generated video of a bus on fire and demonstration violence

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8105207.stm (Reporters' log: Iran upheaval, June 21, 2009)

24 hour liveblog by BBC reporters Getty image of Iran demonstration

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111670.stm (Video shows fierce Iran clashes, June 21, 2009)

User-generated video of protesters clashing w military

User-generated video of protesters clashing w military

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middl Commentary by Hugh Sykes with interviews of anonymous Iranians cited

AP image of Iran demonstration

101

e_east/8111695.stm (Freedom craving 'fuelling Iran unrest', June 21, 2009)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111352.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June 21, 2009)

Jeremy Bowen, Iranian state television, Reuters, Al-Arabiyya, Newsweek, Reporters Without Borders, AFP, Press TV, anonymous Iranians, Ahmadinejad cited

Still image from Neda video A, image of Jeremy Bowen, AP image of burning car at demonstration, user-generated video of protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113982.stm (Riot police break up Tehran rally, June 21, 2009)

User-generated video claiming to show riot police breaking up an opposition rally in central Tehran

User-generated video claiming to show riot police breaking up an opposition rally in central Tehran

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8112000/8112232.stm (Obama has 'accentuated Iran's internal rifts', June 22, 2009)

Interview with Iran analyst Kraim Sajadpour No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/8113068.stm (New questions over Iran election results, June 22, 2009)

Interview with Thomas Rintoul of University of St Andrews

No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8113353.stm (Embassy staff families leave Iran, June 22, 2009)

Foreign and Commonwealth Office AP image of street protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8113552.stm (Death video woman 'targeted by militia', June 22, 2009)

Interview with Caspian Makan User-generated images of Agha-Soltan and alleged mass graves

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8112909.stm (Iranian views: tension rising, June 22, 2009)

Unverified emails sent by Iranians to BBC Persian and BBC News

Unattributed image of a lone protester confronting riot cops

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113077.stm (Analysis: Iran splits widen, June 22, 2009)

Jeremy Bowen, Mousavi cited AP image of street protests and AP stock image of Khamenei

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8114002.stm (Iran intercepting mobile calls, June 22, 2009)

Rory Cellen-Jones report citing Nokia Siemens Video report by Rory Cellen-Jones

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112341.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June 22, 2009

Statement by Hassan Qashqavi Video report on Qashqavi statement

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112049.stm (Examining footage from Tehran, June 22, 2009)

User-generated video sent to BBC Persian and BBC News

Video report by Rana Rahimpour analyzing user-generated content

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8112993.stm (Bahrain closes paper in Iran row, June 22, 2009)

Article in Akhbar al-Kaleej by Saira Rajab and Bahraini Journalists Association cited

AFP image of Akhbar al-Kaleej

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112812.stm (Police break up new Tehran rally, June 22, 2009)

User-generated video, eyewitness statements, emails received by BBC Persian, Revolutionary Guards statement posted to website,Caspian Makan interview, unnamed academics at St Andrew's University and Chatham House cirted

Unattributed image of Agha-Soltan and user-generated video claiming to show a rally near Shiroudi Stadium and video of Iranian police arresting protesters

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8112036.stm (West 'seeks Iran disintegration', June

Reporters Without Borders, Mousavi's website, unnamed analysts, Jeremy Bowen cited

AP image of protester

102

22, 2009)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8101621.stm (Q&A: Iran election aftermath, June 22, 2009)

Article by BBC Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba

AFP image of riot policemen confronting protesters

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8112550.stm (Hi-tech helps Iran monitoring, June 22, 2009)

Report by Rory Cellan-Jones citing Nokia Siemens, OpenNet initiative interviews

Unattributed image of woman with a loose hijab using a camera phone in front of a Mousavi poster

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8111638.stm (Iran asks BBC reporter to leave, June 22, 2009)

Video interview with Jon Leyne, Iranian government statement, Nabil al-Khatib of al-Arabiyya cited

Video interview with Jon Leyne

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8114108.stm (Cool reception for new Speaker, June 23, 2009)

Roundup of articles in UK dailies Stock image of UK newspapers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8114085.stm (End Iran violence, UN chief urges, June 23, 2009)

Ban Ki-moon, Press TV, reports generated via unverified eyewitnesses/social media Revolutionary Guard website, BBC Persian interview with Caspian Makan, Guardian Council, analysts from st Andrews University and Chatham House cited

User-generated video of rally near Siroudi Stadium and Iranian police making protests, unattributed photo of Agha-Soltan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8118616.stm (Iranian views: 'Critical Times', June 25, 2009)

User emails to BBC Persian, Twitter postings and translation of a satirical poster held at an Iran gathering cited

User-generated video of protesters chanting Allahu akbar, user-generated image of satirical Persian-language poster found at rally

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119741.stm ('She died in less than a minute', June 25, 2009)

Interview of Arash Hejazi by Rachel Harvey Video interview of Arash Hejazi by Rachel Harvey

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119658.stm (The man who tried to save Neda, June 25, 2009)

Interview of Arash Hejazi by Rachel Harvey Video interview of Arash Hejazi by Rachel Harvey

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8119713.stm (Iran doctor tells of Neda death, June 25, 2009)

Interview of Arash Hejazi by Rachel Harvey Video interview of Arash Hejazi by Rachel Harvey, unattributed image of Agha-Soltan, Getty image of a western "I Am Neda" protest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8121392.stm (Iran views: Anger remains, June 29, 2009)

User emails to BBC from Iranians "Behrooz, Student, Tehran" and "Sisyphus, 26, Student, Shiraz"

User-generated video of June 28 protests at a Tehran mosque on June 28, unattributed image of boy releasing green balloons in Tehran

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8125181.stm (Ahmadinejad calls for Neda probe, June 29, 2009

Ahmadinejad, Agha-Soltan videos, statement by Gordon Brown, reports on social media cited

AFP image of an Agha-Soltan shrine and user-generated video appearing to show arrests in Tehran protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8129083.stm (The buzz: Neda – a case of mistaken identity, July 3, 2009)

Report by Siobhan Courtney citing BBC Newsnight, Twitter, Facebook, blogger Dr Amy L Beam, The Guardian

Unattributed image photo comparing headshots of Neda Agha-Soltan and Neda Soltani

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8171384.stm (Ahmadinejad riles powerful allies, July 27, 2009)

Report by Jon Leyne citing Iranian television, Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, Tehran Emrouz newspaper, Khabar newspaper, Ali Kordan, an unnamed Iranian MP and social media

AP image of Ahmadinejad, AFP image of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, AFP image of Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, AP image of Western Agha-Soltan protest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8175702.stm (US urges Iran to free prisoners, July 29, 2009)

Hillary Clinton, unnamed opposition leaders, unnamed BBC correspondents, Ahmadinejad, reformist journalist Hanif Mazroei speaking to BBC Persian cited

Repackaged video statement by Hillary Clinton

103

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8175000/8175771.stm (Today: Thursday 30 July 2009)

Interview of Hajar Rostami Motlagh by Jon Leyne

No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176053.stm (Mother's tribute to shot Iranian woman, July 30, 2009)

Interview of Hajar Rostami Motlagh by Jon Leyne

No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176957.stm (The rise of Iran's citizen journalists, July 30, 2009)

Report by Dave Lee citing Twitter, Facebook, Azi Khatiri of BBC Persian, journalist Bill Thompson

Unattributed image of Iran protests and unattributed image of fires at protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/8176029.stm (Neda's mother talks of her heartbreak, July 30, 2009)

Interview of Hajar Rostami Motlagh by Jon Leyne

No graphics/images/video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8175764.stm (Iran police clash with mourners, July 30, 2009)

Iranian television, unverified emails from eyewitnesses, Mousavi, opposition statements, unverified witness reports, AFP, US State Department, Mehr News Agency cited

Unattributed image of Agha-Soltan, repackaged user-generated video of violence in Tehran

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176961.stm (Iran witnesses: Neda's memorial, July 31, 2009)

Unverified emails from eyewitnesses User-generated video of Arabyeen protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8176098.stm (Interview: Mother's tribute to Neda, July 30, 2009)

Interview of Hajar Rostami Motlagh by Jon Leyne (Leyne identified only as “BBC”)

AFP image of a shrine to Agha-Soltan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8179470.stm (Iran puts 100 protesters on trial, August 1, 2009)

Iranian television, Mosharekat party statement, Fars news agency, BBC's Kasra Naji, social media cited

Unattributed video of protesters on trial and AP/AFP images of Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Mohsen Mirdamadi and Behzad Nabavi

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8184928.stm (In pictures: Iran's election crisis, August 5, 2009)

No non-BBC sources cited 8 AFP images, 3 AP, 2 Getty, 2 unattributed. Images are of stylishly dressed protesters, voters in chadors, Khameini, Mousavi, Ahmadinejad supporters, graphic Tehran violence and trial of protesters

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/middle_east/8176158.stm (Profile: Neda Agha Soltan, July 30, 2009)

Motlagh interview, Hejazi interview, social media cited

Unattributed image of Agha-Soltan protest in the West

Table AJ-1: Iran Stories From english.aljazeera.net and YouTube (AlJazeeraEnglish), June 20-22, 2009

06/20/09 06/21/09 06/22/09

“Disputed Election Divides Iranian Clergy”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962016750666262.html

“Tehran Clashes 'Left 13 Dead'”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096211428164598.html

“Iran Council 'Admits Poll Flaws'”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096226353443698.html

“Iranians Hold Mass Rally in Paris”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/06/2009620174443971513.html

“Iran Condemns West's 'Interference'”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621131039448390.html

“Iran Protesters Defy Warning”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009622185433984922.html

“'Suicide Bomber Hits Tehran Shrine”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620132

“Deaths Confirmed in Iran Unrest”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/200962183455848

“Iran's Guards to 'Crush' Protests”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096221191

104

947283202.html 331.html 7155481.html

“Q&A: Tweeting From Tehran”http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/06/2009620111022959219.html

“Journalists Held In Iran Crackdown”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621182348210316.html

“Iran's Mousavi Urges More Protests”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962212658772171.html

“Iran Police 'Clash With Protesters'”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096209644441364.html

“Iran's Mousavi Urges Defiance”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621191831403557.html

“Riz Khan: Iran's Internet Revolution”http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/06/200962281940160238.html

“Police Crack Down on Iran Protests”http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620184151643728.html

“Violence in the Streets of the Iranian Capital”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-loe_VMws

“Crime Charges Against Iran Sought”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hvHja_yi8w

“Mobile Bulletin – 1405 GMT”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BIO_HlK8q8

“Mobile Bulletin – 1935 GMT”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUlijebKzWU

Table AJ-2: Stories Featuring Neda Agha-Soltan From english.aljazeera.net , June 23 – September 22

2009

Key: “Cursory” - Mentions of Agha-Soltan in one or two sentences.

“Medium” - At least one paragraph devoted to Agha-Soltan

“In-depth” - Article centers around Agha-Soltan

Article Name & Date Portrayal of Agha-Soltan

Sample Description

“Fiance Tells of Neda's Last Moments,” June 23, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096234329424968.html

In-Depth “Caspian Makan, the fiance of the Iranian woman shot dead last week, tells Al Jazeera of her last moments.”

“Iran Body Rules Out Poll Annulment,” June 23, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962374448861297.html

Medium “"Neda [Soltani] and the pictures of her very last moments will become a huge symbol of these protests," he said, referring to an online video which alleges to show an Iranian woman dying after being shot by a member of the Basij militia.”

“Iran's Neda Killing 'Was Illegal,'” June 24, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962484755543950.html

In-Depth “The woman, named as Neda Agha Soltan on social-networking websites, has become a symbol for people protesting against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

“Iran University Professors 'Held',” June 25, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962533640849336.h

Cursory “Protesters have said that they plan to continue their protests on Friday by releasing thousands of balloons imprinted with the message "Neda you will always remain in our hearts" - a reference to the young woman killed last week whose image has become an icon of the protests.”

105

tml

“Iran Recount Gives Ahmadinejad Win,” June 29, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009629151258105455.html

Medium “Ahmadinejad has asked a leading judge to investigate the killing of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman who became an icon of Iran's opposition after video capturing her bleeding to death on a Tehran street was circulated worldwide.”

“Protesters Decry Iran Detentions,” July 25, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097258437330979.html

Cursory Photo of Agha Soltan shown.

“Iran Opposition to Mourn Protesters,” July 30, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097306505961426.html

Cursory “Neda, a 26-year-old music student, was shot on June 20, as protesters clashed with riot police and members of the pro-government Basij militia in Tehran.”

“Iran Police Clash With Mourners,” July 31, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/2009730113037944759.html

Medium “Neda, a 26-year-old music student, was shot as protesters clashed with riot police and members of the pro-government Basij militia in Tehran.”

“The Riz Khan Show: Iran's Bitter Political Divide,” August 5, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/08/200985134516516621.html

Medium “Women played a tremendous role in the protests and the fatal shooting of Neda Agha Soltan became the most defining image of the demonstrations.”

“Iran: The End of the Republic?,” August 1, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/20098171953790365.html

Cursory “During the most recent gatherings and demonstrations mourning the death of Neda Agha-Soltan at Tehran's main cemetery, it is reported that Basij units used taser guns against protesters as well as marking them with paintballs in order to identify them at a later point.”

“The Listening Post: Corporate Media Wars,”August 21, 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/listeningpost/2009/08/200982195238394421.html

In-Depth “Only Neda Sultan, whose dying moments during a Tehran street protest were broadcast on televisions and computer screens, made news the world over.”

“Fight to Release Abu Ghraib Images,” September 8, 2009http://english.aljazeerAa.net/focus/2009/09/200992112214934570.html

Cursory “While addressing the post-election unrest in Iran, [Barack Obama] noted that he had seen the amateur video of an Iranian woman – Neda – dying after being shot in the chest.”

Table AJ-3: Formatting of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: “News” - Straightforward news story, “Feature” - Feature/expository story, “Op-Ed” - Opinion Piece,

“Interview” - Interview-based piece w/ two or more participants, “Photo Gallery” - Still-photo based collection

of visual news, “User-generated news” - Content consisting exclusively of edited information received from

social media, “Hybrid” - Multi-genre mixture with specific explanation noted, “Other” - Miscellaneous with

specific explanation noted.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962016750666262.html (Disputed election divides

News

106

Iranian clergy, June 20, 2009)

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/06/2009620174443971513.html (Iranians hold mass rally in Paris, June 20, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620132947283202.html ('Suicide bomber' hits Tehran shrine, June 20, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/06/2009620111022959219.html (Q&A: Tweeting from Tehran, June 20,2009)

Interview

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096209644441364.html (Iran police 'clash with protesters', June 20, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620184151643728.html (Police crack down on Iran protests, June 21, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096211428164598.html (Tehran clashes 'left 13 dead', June 21, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621131039448390.html (Iran condemns West's 'interference', June 21, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/200962183455848331.html (Deaths confirmed in Iran unrest, June 21, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621182348210316.html (Journalists held in Iran crackdown, June 21, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621191831403557.html (Iran's Mousavi urges defiance, June 22, 2009)

News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-loe_VMws (Violence on the streets of the Iranian capital, June 21, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096226353443698.html (Iran council 'admits poll flaws', June 22, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009622185433984922.html (Iran protesters defy warning, June 23, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962211917155481.html (Iran's Guards to 'crush' protests, June 22, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962212658772171.html (Iran's Mousavi urges more protests, June 22, 2009)

News

107

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/06/200962281940160238.html (Riz Khan: Iran's Internet Revolution, June 23, 2009)

Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hvHja_yi8w (Crimes charges against Iran sought, June 22, 2009)

Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BIO_HlK8q8 (Mobile Bulletin - 1405GMT - 22 June 09)

News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUlijebKzWU (Mobile bulletin - 1935GMT - 22 June 09)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096234329424968.html (Fiance tells of Neda's last moments, June 23, 2009)

Interview

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962374448861297.html (Iran body rules out poll annulment, June 23, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962484755543950.html (Iran's Neda killing 'was illegal', June 24, 2009)

Interview

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962533640849336.html (Iran university professors 'held', June 25, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009629151258105455.html (Iran recount gives Ahmadinejad win, June 29, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097258437330979.html (Protesters decry iran detentions, July 25, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097306505961426.html (Iran opposition to mourn protesters, July 30, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/2009730113037944759.html (Iranian police clash with mourners, July 31, 2009)

News

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/08/200985134516516621.html (Riz Khan:Iran's bitter political divide, August 6, 2009)

Interview

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/20098171953790365.html (Iran: The end of the Republic, August 1, 2009)

Op-ed

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/listeningpost/2009/08/200982195238394421.html (Listening Post: Corporate media wars, September 12, 2009)

Hybrid (Opinion/Feature/Interview)

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/09/200992112214934570.html (Fight to release Abu Ghraib images, September 8, 2009)

Op-ed

108

Table AJ-4: Framing of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: First column - “Pro” - Narrative overtly sympathetic to either Agha-Soltan, participants in the Iranian

street events of June 2009, or both. “Neutral”- Narrative neutral to either Agha-Soltan, participants in the Iranian

street events of June 2009, or both. “Against” - Narrative overtly hostile to either Agha-Soltan, participants in

the Iranian street events of June 2009, or both. Second column – Representative keywords or key phrases from

story used to make this determination.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962016750666262.html (Disputed election divides Iranian clergy, June 20, 2009)

Pro "Post-election protests," "Some ayatollahs say the election was a sham"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/06/2009620174443971513.html (Iranians hold mass rally in Paris, June 20, 2009)

Neutral "Iranians protesting over the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," "Opposition," "Widespread irregularities"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620132947283202.html ('Suicide bomber' hits Tehran shrine, June 20, 2009)

Pro "Many people would believe the explosion was 'a government conspiracy'," "Protesters," "Disputed reelection"

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/06/2009620111022959219.html (Q&A: Tweeting from Tehran, June 20,2009)

Pro “'Information uprising' in Tehran", "Iranian elections," "What needs to change in Iran?"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096209644441364.html (Iran police 'clash with protesters', June 20, 2009)

Pro "People gathering to protest against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," "Protesters"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620184151643728.html (Police crack down on Iran protests, June 21, 2009)

Neutral "People attempting to protest over the disputed presidential election," "Rally," "Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, a defeated reformist candidate," "Protesters"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096211428164598.html (Tehran clashes 'left 13 dead', June 21, 2009)

Neutral "Protesters," "Disputed presidential election," "Clashes," "People who took to the streets," "Gatherings," "Opposition protesters"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621131039448390.html (Iran condemns West's 'interference', June 21, 2009)

Neutral "Mass protests," "Protests," "The tens of thousands of people who have taken to the streets," "Claims of voting irregularities during the election," "Protesters"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/200962183455848331.html (Deaths confirmed in Iran unrest, June 21, 2009)

Neutral "Unrest," "Rioters," "Claims of election fraud," "Anti-government demonstrators," "Protesters," "One video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday alleged to show a teenage girl - being called Neda - dying on the street after being shot by police."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621182348210

Pro "Protests," "Disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad"

109

316.html (Journalists held in Iran crackdown, June 21, 2009)

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621191831403557.html (Iran's Mousavi urges defiance, June 22, 2009)

Neutral "Opposition movement," "Protests," "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the conservative incumbent president, was declared the winner of the June 12 election with a landslide victory, but Mousavi and another challenger have complained that it was rigged," "Protesters," "One video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday alleged to show a teenage girl - referred to as Neda on social networking sites - dying on the street after being shot by police."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-loe_VMws (Violence on the streets of the Iranian capital, June 21, 2009)

Pro "Iranians continue to protest against an election they believe was stolen," "Clashes," "Disturbing images of a teenager dying on the streets of Tehran have appeared on the internet. It is not possible to confirm what happened to the girl known as "Neda," "she (Neda) has become a symbol and martyr to the protesters"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096226353443698.html (Iran council 'admits poll flaws', June 22, 2009)

Pro “Some irregularities occurred in the disputed June 12 presidential election," "Allege(d) voter fraud," "Rallies," "Protest"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009622185433984922.html (Iran protesters defy warning, June 23, 2009)

Neutral "Anti-government protesters," "Protesters," "Rallies," "Unrest and street protests," "Some irregularities occurred during the election"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962211917155481.html (Iran's Guards to 'crush' protests, June 22, 2009)

Against "Protests," "Gathered," "Opposition supporters," "Rallies"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962212658772171.html (Iran's Mousavi urges more protests, June 22, 2009)

Neutral "Opposition movement," "Protests," "Take to the streets," Protesters," "One video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday purportedly showed a teenage girl - referred to as Neda on social-networking sites - dying on the street after being shot by police"

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/06/200962281940160238.html (Riz Khan: Iran's Internet Revolution, June 23, 2009)

Neutral "Mass protests," "Disputed presidential election"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hvHja_yi8w (Crimes charges against Iran sought, June 22, 2009)

Pro "Post-election violence"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BIO_HlK8q8 (Mobile Bulletin - 1405GMT - 22 June 09)

Neutral "Iran in Crisis," "Protesters," "Gathering"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUlijebKzWU (Mobile bulletin - 1935GMT - 22 June 09)

Neutral "Iran unrest," "Protesters," "Mousavi supporters"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096234329424968.html (Fiance tells of Neda's last moments, June 23, 2009)

Pro "The Iranian woman shot dead last week," "Neda Soltani was allegedly killed by a Basij militia volunteer in Tehran as residents protested over the June 12 presidential election," "Neda's fiance"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009623744488612

Neutral "Disputed June 12 presidential election," "Voting discrepancies," "Unrest," "Street protests," "Demonstrators," "An online video which alleges to show an Iranian woman dying after being shot by a member of the Basij militia"

110

97.html (Iran body rules out poll annulment, June 23, 2009)

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962484755543950.html (Iran's Neda killing 'was illegal', June 24, 2009)

Pro "A young woman shot dead during a protest in Tehran," "The woman, named as Neda Agha Soltan on social-networking websites, has become a symbol for people protesting against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president," "A video recorded on a mobile phone showed what appeared to be people attempting to save her life after she was apparently hit by sniper's bullet"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962533640849336.html (Iran university professors 'held', June 25, 2009)

Neutral "Disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," "Demonstrators," "Protesters," "Protesters have said that they plan to continue their protests on Friday by releasing thousands of balloons imprinted with the message 'Neda you will always remain in our hearts'”

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009629151258105455.html (Iran recount gives Ahmadinejad win, June 29, 2009)

Pro "Disputed presidential election," "Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman who became an icon of Iran's opposition after video capturing her bleeding to death on a Tehran street was circulated worldwide."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097258437330979.html (Protesters decry iran detentions, July 25, 2009)

Pro "Activists," "Critics of the government," "Opposition supporters"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097306505961426.html (Iran opposition to mourn protesters, July 30, 2009)

Neutral "Protesters," "Disputed presidential election," "Claimed the vote was rigged," "Neda Agha-Soltan, a protester who was killed on June 20 and has since become a symbol of the opposition," "Neda, a 26-year-old music student, was shot on June 20, as protesters clashed with riot police and members of the pro-government Basij militia in Tehran," "Unrest"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/2009730113037944759.html (Iranian police clash with mourners, July 31, 2009)

Neutral "Hundreds of people who gathered," "Protesters," "One of the protesters killed, Neda Agha-Soltan, has since become a symbol of the opposition," "Neda, a 26-year-old music student, was shot as protesters clashed with riot police and members of the pro-government Basij militia in Tehran"

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/08/200985134516516621.html (Riz Khan:Iran's bitter political divide, August 6, 2009)

Pro "Controversial presidential election," "Violent protests," "The fatal shooting of Neda Agha Soltan became the most defining image of the demonstrations"

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/20098171953790365.html (Iran: The end of the Republic, August 1, 2009)

Pro "Electorate's collective feeling of injustice and rage," "State sponsored violence against its own citizens," "Mourning the death of Neda Agha-Soltan"

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/listeningpost/2009/08/200982195238394421.html (Listening Post: Corporate media wars, September 12, 2009)

Neutral "The murder of two Muslim women, but how only one of caught the Western media's attention," "Only Neda Sultan, whose dying moments during a Tehran street protest were broadcast on televisions and computer screens, made news the world over"

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/09/200992112214934570.html (Fight to release Abu Ghraib images, September 8, 2009)

Pro "Amateur video of an Iranian woman – Neda – dying after being shot in the chest. The video has come to symbolise Iran's oppressive response to recent political protest"

Table AJ-5: Sourcing of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: First column – Explicitly stated sources used for written/spoken narrative in each individual piece of

111

content.. Second column – Sources and description of graphic/video imagery in each individual piece of content.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962016750666262.html (Disputed election divides Iranian clergy, June 20, 2009)

Report by Nicole Johnston citing "unconfirmed reports", Nazenin Ansari of Kayhan Weekly and Hossein-Ali Montazeri statement

Video filmed in Qom

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/06/2009620174443971513.html (Iranians hold mass rally in Paris, June 20, 2009)

National Council of Iranian Resistance leader Maryam Radjavi statement, organizer Alireza Jafarzadeh and "agencies"

AFP image of Parisian rally

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620132947283202.html ('Suicide bomber' hits Tehran shrine, June 20, 2009)

Hossein Sajedinia statement to Mehr news agency, Al Jazeera correspondent Teymoor Nabili, former diplomat Mehrdad Khonsari, “local news agencies,” "agencies"

AFP image of Khomeini's shrine

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/06/2009620111022959219.html (Q&A: Tweeting from Tehran, June 20,2009)

Report by Kathleen McCaul interviewing a Twitter user known as 'Shahrazad'

Image of screen capture of Twitter account @shahrzadmo

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096209644441364.html (Iran police 'clash with protesters', June 20, 2009)

Deputy national police commander Ahmadreza Radan, Al Jazeera correspondent Alireza Ronaghi, Iranian state television, Khameini sermon

AFP image of masked "protesters" at a demonstration

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009620184151643728.html (Police crack down on Iran protests, June 21, 2009)

Unverified emails and statements from witnesses, user-generated content, Ronaghi, Iranian television, Obama statement, Al Jazeera correspondent Nick Spicer, Mousavi statement in Kalameh

AP image of fire in the streets of Tehran

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096211428164598.html (Tehran clashes 'left 13 dead', June 21, 2009)

Iranian television, Ronaghi, Khamenei statement, Mohsen Makhmalbaf interview, statement by International Campaign for Human Rights, Twitter, YouTube, Amnesty International's Drewery Dyke, Montazeri's website, Mehr news agency

AFP image of fires in central Tehran and EPA stock image of Rafsanjani

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621131039448390.html (Iran condemns West's 'interference', June 21, 2009)

ISNA news agency, Manouchehr Mottaki statement, Angela Merkel statement, David Miliband statement, Journal du Dimanche, Bernard Kouchner statement

AFP image of stone-throwing Tehran proteste

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/200962183455848331.html (Deaths confirmed in Iran unrest, June 21, 2009)

Iran television, ISNA, Merkel statement, Mohnsen Makhmalnaf statement, Ahmadinejad statement, Twitter, YouTube, unspecified blogs and social networking websites, IRINN television, Kalameh, Obama statement, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei statement

AFP image of stone-throwing protesters and masked demonstrators being chased by Basijis on motorbikes

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621182348210316.html (Journalists held in Iran crackdown, June

Reporters Without Borders statement, Newsweek statement, Iranian radio, Fars News Agency, BBC statement, Mohammed al-Khateeb of Al-Arabiyya statement

AFP image of BBC's Jon Leyne (with name misspelled as John)

112

21, 2009)

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009621191831403557.html (Iran's Mousavi urges defiance, June 22, 2009)

Mousavi statement on Kalameh's website, Iranian television and radio, Makhmalbaf interview, witness interviews, International Campaign for Human Rights, Twitter, YouTube, Amnesty International, Iranian television, Montazeri statement, Khatami statement

Getty image of fires in the streets of Tehran and EPA image of Rafsanjani

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-loe_VMws (Violence on the streets of the Iranian capital, June 21, 2009)

Nazanine Moshiri report with Neda Video A footage obtained from YouTube, Twitter, unverified user-generated content, unidentified television networks, Iranian television, Gen. Esmaeil Moghadam statement, Mottaki interview, Ali Larijani statement

Edited footage of video A, IRINN riot footage, 4 still images (w/ watermark) from Demotix Images, still image of Ali Larijani (misidentified as 'Al' Larijani), Mousavi footage, Youtube footage of riots

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096226353443698.html (Iran council 'admits poll flaws', June 22, 2009)

IRIB radio, Guardian Council statement, Hassan Ghashghavi at Foreign Ministry statement, Iranian radio, interview with Ahmadinejad advisor Alireza Zaker-Esfahani, Mousavi statement in Kalameh, Reporters without Borders

AFP image of riot cops watching a fire in central Tehran

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009622185433984922.html (Iran protesters defy warning, June 23, 2009)

Revolutionary Guard website, anonymous unverified witnesses at Haft-e Tir square, Ban Ki-moon statement, Iranian radio, Zaker-Esfahani interview, statement by Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei of Guardian Council to IRIB, Iranian journalist Ghanbar Naderi, Mousavi statement to Kalameh, anonymous Mousavi supporter named 'Atoosa'

AFP image of Tehran riot police, unattributed image of Makan and Agha-Soltan, "user-supplied image" of sign reading 'This is Selection Not Election'

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962211917155481.html (Iran's Guards to 'crush' protests, June 22, 2009)

Revolutionary Guards website, Iranian radio, Fars news agency, Zaker-Esfahani interview, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, Mousavi statement in Kalameh, Reporters Without Borders

AFP image of Tehran riot police, "user-supplied image" of sign reading 'This is Selection Not Election'

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962212658772171.html (Iran's Mousavi urges more protests, June 22, 2009)

Mousavi statement in Kalameh, anonymous unverified reports, Iranian government statements, Press TV, Iranian TV, Mousavi spokesperson Mohsen Makhmalbaf, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Twitter, YouTube, "local news agencies," IRINN, Amnesty International, Mehr News Agency

AFP image of riot police attacking Iranians, EPA stock image of Rafsanjani, Reuters image of bloodied protester, Reuters image of green-masked protesters

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/06/200962281940160238.html (Riz Khan: Iran's Internet Revolution, June 23, 2009)

Guest Ethan Zuckerman of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr

Television talk show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hvHja_yi8w (Crimes charges against Iran sought, June 22, 2009)

Former UN war crimes prosecutor Payam Akhavan Graphic user-generated footage of Basij/police violence at Tehran protests, protest violence, Iranians being beaten by police

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BIO_HlK8q8 (Mobile Bulletin - 1405GMT - 22 June 09)

Mousavi statement, Iranian government statement, Italian government statement and Zaker-Esfahani quote

Zaker-Esfahani interview footage and user-generated footage of Tehran protests

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUlijebKzWU (Mobile bulletin - 1935GMT - 22 June 09)

Ronaghi narration, Zaker-Esfahani Ronaghi footage, Zaker-Esfahani interview footage, user-generated footage of Tehran protests, footage of unidentified Al Jazzeera corresp

http://english.aljazeera.net/ Caspian Makan interview Split screen of Makan's face and Iranian map, footage of demonstration Agha-Soltan attended,

113

news/middleeast/2009/06/20096234329424968.html (Fiance tells of Neda's last moments, June 23, 2009)

footage of Video A and video B, unattributed images of Makan and Agha-Soltan together, user-generated footage of Basij in streets of Tehran and post-election unrest

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962374448861297.html (Iran body rules out poll annulment, June 23, 2009)

Abbas Ali Kadkhodaie of Guardian Council interview, Ban Ki-Moon statement, Hassan Qashqavi statement cited from ISNA, Gordon Brown, Iranian interior ministry, Revolutionary Guard website, statement by Ebrahim Raisi of Iranian judiciary on state radio, Ronaghi, unnamed Mehdi Karoubi aide cited by Reuters, Hadi Ghaemi of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Reuters image of Iranian filming protest with mobile phone, unattributed image of Makan and Agha-Soltan together

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962484755543950.html (Iran's Neda killing 'was illegal', June 24, 2009)

Interview with Shirin Ebadi EPA image of Ebadi

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200962533640849336.html (Iran university professors 'held', June 25, 2009)

Mousavi statement on Kalameh, Press TV, statement by Montazeri to AFP cited, Iraqi author Baqer Moin, Ahmadinejad statement

User-generated picture of police confronting protesters

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009629151258105455.html (Iran recount gives Ahmadinejad win, June 29, 2009)

IRIB television, Hillary Clinton statement, Naderi, Press TV, Afsin Molavi of New America Foundation, Ahmadinejad's website, Hejazi interview with BBC, Hassan Qashqavi of Foreign Ministry, Gordon Brown statement

AFP image of Western pro-Green protesters and AFP image of Khamenei at press conference

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097258437330979.html (Protesters decry iran detentions, July 25, 2009)

Ex-political prisoner Ardeshir Gholipour statement to Associated Press cited, Aaron Rhods of United for Iran, joint statement on Mousavi's website by Mousavi/Karroubi/Khatami, separate Karroubi statement from his website cited via Reuters, Kian Mokhtari (Iranian political commentator)

AFP image of Western pro-Green protesters

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097306505961426.html (Iran opposition to mourn protesters, July 30, 2009)

Joint statement on Mousavi's website by Mousavi/Karroubi/Khatami, "media reports," Iranian prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, Eternad Melli newspaper

AFP image of Mousavi and Karroubi

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/2009730113037944759.html (Iranian police clash with mourners, July 31, 2009)

Witness quote cited via Reuters, Ronaghi, Mortazvi, qMoghaddam, quote from Rasool Montajebnia of Etemad Melli, interview with Karim Sadjadpor at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

AFP image of Mousavi and Karroubi

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/08/200985134516516621.html (Riz Khan:Iran's bitter political divide, August 6, 2009)

Guests Kaveh Afrasiabi of Global Interfaith Peace and Dokhi Fassihian of National Iranian American Council, user-generated footage, Twitter

Television talk show

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/20098171953790365.html (Iran: The end of the Republic, August 1, 2009)

Op-ed by Bernd Kaussler of James Madison University/University of St Andrews

Getty stock image of Ahmadinejad, Getty image of a "Down With the Islamic Republic" poster, Getty image of masked protesters

114

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/listeningpost/2009/08/200982195238394421.html (Listening Post: Corporate media wars, September 12, 2009)

Television magazine segment hosted by Salah Khadr citing YouTube, Twitter, blogs

Television magazine show

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/09/200992112214934570.html (Fight to release Abu Ghraib images, September 8, 2009)

Op-ed by Alexander Abdo of the American Civil Liberties Union

Getty image of mural depicting Abu Ghraib, AP image of Abu Ghraib

Table RT-1: Iran Stories From rt.com, June 20-22 2009

06/20/09 06/21/09 06/22/09

“The War on Terror as a Spin of Imagination. Part 3. Conspiracies,”http://rt.com/Politics/2009-06-20/The_War_on_Terror_as_a_Spin_of_Imagination._Part_3._Conspiracies..html

“The Resident: NYC Speaks Out on Iran Protests,”http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-21/NYC_speaks_out_on_Iran_s_protests.html

“Muslim Girls Fall Victim to Honor Killings,”http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-22/Muslim_girls_fall_victim_to_honor_killings.html

“Which Direction is Iran Headed?”http://rt.com/About_Us/Blogs/With_words_we_govern_men___Disraeli/2009-06-20.html

“In Context: Iran's Street Democracy,”http://rt.com/About_Us/Programmes/in_context/2009-06-22/484485.html

Table RT-2: Formatting of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: “News” - Straightforward news story, “Feature” - Feature/expository story, “Op-Ed” - Opinion Piece,

“Interview” - Interview-based piece w/ two or more participants, “Photo Gallery” - Still-photo based collection

of visual news, “User-generated news” - Content consisting exclusively of edited information received from

social media, “Hybrid” - Multi-genre mixture with specific explanation noted, “Other” - Miscellaneous with

specific explanation noted.

http://rt.com/About_Us/Blogs/With_words_we_govern_men___Disraeli/2009-06-20.html (Alexey Sazonov: Which direction is Iran headed?, June 20, 2009)

Op-Ed

http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-21/NYC_speaks_out_on_Iran_s_protests.html ('The Resident': NYC speaks out on Iran's protests, June 21, 2009)

Interview

http://rt.com/About_Us/Programmes/in_context/2009-06-22/484485.html (In Context: Iran's street democracy, June 22, 2009)

Hybrid (Television newsmagazine with interview, feature elements)

http://rt.com/Politics/2009-06-24/How_Western_media_backs_the__green_revolution__in_Iran.html (How Western media backs the 'Green

News

115

Revolution' in Iran, June 24, 2009)

http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-28/Is_the_media_fair_on_Iran.html ('The Resident': Is the media fair on Iran?, June 28, 2009)

Interview

http://rt.com/Politics/2009-08-05/iranian-patriots-ahmadinejad-labeled.html (Iranian patriots have always been labelled by the West, August 5, 2010)

Op-Ed

Table RT-3: Framing of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: First column - “Pro” - Narrative overtly sympathetic to either Agha-Soltan, participants in the Iranian

street events of June 2009, or both. “Neutral”- Narrative neutral to either Agha-Soltan, participants in the Iranian

street events of June 2009, or both. “Against” - Narrative overtly hostile to either Agha-Soltan, participants in

the Iranian street events of June 2009, or both. Second column – Representative keywords or key phrases from

story used to make this determination.

http://rt.com/About_Us/Blogs/With_words_we_govern_men___Disraeli/2009-06-20.html (Alexey Sazonov: Which direction is Iran headed?, June 20, 2009)

Against "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has no choice but to defend the elections," "Will the government prove to be as violent and oppressive as the Sheikh (sic) who was overthrown by the infamous Iranian Revolution that defied Western ambitions in Persia?" "Iran will collapse if protests turn into violence"

http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-21/NYC_speaks_out_on_Iran_s_protests.html ('The Resident': NYC speaks out on Iran's protests, June 21, 2009)

Neutral “The Iranian government in turn says it faces not demonstrations, but riots," "clashes," "taken to the streets," "Do you think they're crossing any lines, like showing that girl dying?"

http://rt.com/About_Us/Programmes/in_context/2009-06-22/484485.html (In Context: Iran's street democracy, June 22, 2009)

Pro "The Western world has never thought of Iran having a form of democracy," "In my humble opinion, Washington is hoping that Iran will fall into chaos"

http://rt.com/Politics/2009-06-24/How_Western_media_backs_the__green_revolution__in_Iran.html (How Western media backs the 'Green Revolution' in Iran, June 24, 2009)

Against "It was an election that was snatched from the Iranian people – or at least that's the impression being given by Western media outlets," "As the protests continue, some experts still believe there is interference from outside of Iran," "The real story behind the media in Iran is that of instigating a 'green revolution'"

http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-28/Is_the_media_fair_on_Iran.html ('The Resident': Is the media fair on Iran?, June 28, 2009)

Neutral "The tension in the wake of Iran’s election," "(quoted) It's a shame. 16 years old (sic). Why do they have to turn everything around like she was a bad person or something?"

http://rt.com/Politics/2009-08-05/iranian-patriots-ahmadinejad-labeled.html (Iranian patriots have always been labelled by the West, August 5, 2010)

Against "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s uncompromising policies are what makes the Western media portray him in a negative way”

116

Table RT-4: Sourcing of Agha-Soltan and Iran Coverage

Key: First column – Explicitly stated sources used for written/spoken narrative in each individual piece of

content.. Second column – Sources and description of graphic/video imagery in each individual piece of content.

http://rt.com/About_Us/Blogs/With_words_we_govern_men___Disraeli/2009-06-20.html (Alexey Sazonov: Which direction is Iran headed?, June 20, 2009)

No sources disclosed RT headshot of author

http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-21/NYC_speaks_out_on_Iran_s_protests.html ('The Resident': NYC speaks out on Iran's protests, June 21, 2009)

New Yorkers interviewed in Times Square AFP still photo of protests, footage of New Yorkers

http://rt.com/About_Us/Programmes/in_context/2009-06-22/484485.html (In Context: Iran's street democracy, June 22, 2009)

Interview with Afshin Molavi of New America foundation, Iranian interior minister Sadeq Mahsouli cited

Unattributed footage of Tehran protests

http://rt.com/Politics/2009-06-24/How_Western_media_backs_the__green_revolution__in_Iran.html (How Western media backs the 'Green Revolution' in Iran, June 24, 2009)

BBC cited, Voice of America cited, journalist Jalal Ghazi of Neew America Media, Paul Craig Roberts interview, Wayne Madsen interview

AFP footage of Tehran protests

http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-06-28/Is_the_media_fair_on_Iran.html ('The Resident': Is the media fair on Iran?, June 28, 2009)

New Yorkers interviewed in Times Square AFP footage of fires at Tehran protests

http://rt.com/Politics/2009-08-05/iranian-patriots-ahmadinejad-labeled.html (Iranian patriots have always been labelled by the West, August 5, 2010)

Kian Mokhtari interview Unattributed footage of Ahmadinejad

117

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רשימת נספחים

84- 2009 יוני 22 – 2009 יוני 20/ב'.ב'.ס'.), news.bbc.co.uk: סיפורים על איראן ('.ב'.ס.-אנספח ב

85 – 2009 ספטמבר 22 – 2009 יוני 23/ב'.ב'.ס'.), news.bbc.co.ukסיפורים על איראן עם נדה אגא-סולטן (: '.ב'.ס.-בנספח ב

86/ב'.ב'.ס'.) - news.bbc.co.uk: פורמט של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן ('.ב'.ס'-גנספח ב

88/ב'.ב'.ס'.) - news.bbc.co.uk: הפרשנוט של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן ('.ב'.ס'-דנספח ב

92/ב'.ב'.ס'.) - news.bbc.co.uk: המקורות של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן ('.ב'.ס'-הנספח ב

95- 2009 יוני 22 – 2009 יוני 20/יוטוב), english.aljazeera.net: סיפורים על איראן ('ג'-אנספח א

96 – 2009 ספטמבר 22 – 2009 יוני 23/יוטוב), english.aljazeera.net: סיפורים על איראן עם נדה אגא-סולן ('ג'-בנספח א

96/יוטוב) – english.aljazeera.net: פורמט של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן ('ג'-גנספח א

98/יוטוב) – english.aljazeera.net: הפרשנוט של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן ( א'ג'-ד נספח

100/יוטוב) – english.aljazeera.net: המקורות של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן ('ג'-הנספח א

102- 2009 יוני 22 – 2009 יוני 20/רט), rt.com: סיפורים על איראן (-אנספח רט

103/רט) - rt.com: פורמט של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן (-בנספח רט

103/רט) – rt.com: הפרשנוט של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן (-גנספח רט

105/רט) - rt.com: המקורות של סיפורים על איראן ונדה אגא-סולטן (נספח רט-ד

6

תוכן העניינים

3 – הקדמה

5המבוא –

15המתודולוגיה –

19הקודם ספרות –

41-ב'.ב'.ס. - ניתוח של ה

57'זירה אנגלית – ניתוח של אל ג

68ניתוח של רט –

75המסקנה –

84הנספחים –

105הביביליוגרפיה –

5

נגד הממשלה האיראנית". תוכנית אירוח נוספת המשודרת ברשת, תוכנית ביקורת התקשורת

The Listening Postשידרה קטע שהאשים את התקשורת המערבית ב"מוסר כפול" על רקע ,

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Marwa el-Sherbini.האזרחית המצרית שנהרגה בהתקפה גזענית על בית-משפט גרמני ,(

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משתמשים לאינטרנט, אך גם שם ניכרה היקסמות מהטכנולוגיה החדישה. הסיפורים הנוגעים

נוקטים בטון סימפתטי, אך ניכרת הרבה פחות אידאליזציה2009למותה של אגה-סולטן בשנת

Shirinשל דמותה מאשר בסיקור של הבי.בי.סי. ראיון עם כלת פרס נובל לשלום שירין עבאדי (

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והשתמשה במסגור דומה לזה של הבי.בי.סי. עם זאת, "ארזה" את הראיון בהרבה פחות

פורמאטים.

את מותה של אגה-סולטן כדליל ביותר, ספקני ואף עויין.RT, מתגלה סיקור רשת בהשוואה לכך

אחד האזכורים היחידים למקרה אגה-סולטן התרחש בתוכנית ראיונות שנערכה בשכונת טיימס

סקוור שבניו יורק, במסגרתה מופנות שאלות אל "האיש ברחוב". התוכנית הזכירה לצופים

שתושבי ניו יורק חושבים ש"קל מדי לעבור את הקו המפריד בין מחאה למהומות". מהתבוננות

בסיקור הערוץ את איראן באופן כללי עולה שהוא מתקרב לאיזורי תיאוריית הקונספירציה, כולל

האשמת התקשורת המערבית בערעור השלטון באיראן ואזכור מתמיד של התפקיד המכריע

.1953שמילאו אמריקה ובריטניה בהפיכת השלטון באיראן בשנת

4

הצעיר, קיימת פחות כתיבה אקדמית על שתי הרשתות. עם זאת, אני בוחן את ספריהם של היו

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) ואל-נאוואווי, המנתחיםTony Burman), טוני בורמן (John Owenבמחקריהם של ג'ון אוון (

, בכתיבתם שלRTהסיקור האנגלי של אל ג'זירה, ובספרות המחקרית הענפה-פחות בנושא ערוץ

המרכז לדיפלומטיה ציבורית באוניברסיטת דרום קליפורניה ואחרים.מחברי

.בי.סי את מות אגה-סולטן במסגרת ההקשר הרחב-יותר של ההפגנותההתבוננות בסיקור הבי

האלימות שנערכו בטהראן מעלה נראטיב ארוך-טווח במסגרתו מתחלפים מאמצי הרשת

" בעיסוק עיסוק ילדותי2009-בשנת-1979הראשוניים למסגר את האירועים בסגנון "אירועי-

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John( בקנה-מידה עולמי. אחרי שהממשלה האיראנית הורתה לעיתונאי הבי.בי.סי, ג'ון ליין

Leyneלעזוב את המדינה, החל הערוץ להסתמך יותר ויותר על קטעי וידאו שהעלו משתמשים ,(

השעות שאחרי מותה של אגה-סולטן, רוב הסיקור72לרשת לצורך סיקור האירועים בטהראן. ב-

החדשותי של הירי מטעם הערוץ הגיע כחבילה יחד עם ראיון מתורגם עם ארוסה, כספיאן מקאן (

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סולטן כסמל להתאכזרות השלטון האיראני כלפי מפגינים צעירים ואידיאליסטיים.

, שידרה הרשת סיקור מתמשך נרחב של מותה של אגה-סולטן. הסיפורים2009במהלך שאר שנת

הללו קושרו הן למבזקי חדשות רלוונטיים – כגון טקס הארבעים למותה – והן לפיצ'רים

), הרופא שטיפל באגה-סולטןArash Hejaziרטרוספקטיביים. ראיון שנערך עם אראש חג'אזי (

אחרי הירי, זכה לשלל "אריזות" ומסגורים. אני מנתח את הפורמאטים השונים של ראיון זה,

כמו גם של סרט תיעודי בנושא אגה-סולטן ששודר באינטרנט ושל מספר ראיונות עם כמה

), אמה של נדה אגה-סולטן.Rostami Motlaghדמויות אחרות, ובהן רוסטאמי מוטלאר (

ההתבוננות בתקופת-זמן זו חושפת דגם עקבי, לפיו הבי.בי.סי שואף באופן אקטיבי למסגר את

מותה של אגה-סולטן באופן "מרטירי", וזאת בצורה ההופכת אותה לסמל הדמוקראטיה

האיראנית. הן הראיון עם חג'אזי והן הראיון עם מוטלאר מדגישים את המחיר שתבע מות אגה-

סולטן מהסובבים אותה: במקרה של חג'אזי – גלות מאיראן והתנכלות-לכאורה מצד

השלטונות; ובמקרה של מוטלאר – חוסר היכולת להתאבל כראוי על מות בתה.

'זירה. עם זאת, נשאר הערוץ נאמן לאופן בו הוא רואה את ייעודו-סיקור דומה שודר גם באל ג

העצמי: "קולו של הדרום הגלובאלי". תיאורה של אגה-סולטן בערוץ זה היה לא פחות סימפתטי

מאשר בבי.בי.סי, אך הבדל ניכר הוא שהיא ממוסגרת פעמים רבות בהקשר פאן-מוסלמי. במהלך

), השתמשו מספר מאזיניםThe Riz Kahn Showאחת השיחות בתוכנית האירוח של ריז קאהן (

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איראן ולניגוח "מוכנות התקשורת והפוליטיקאים המערביים לקבל כל ביקורת המופצת בטוויטר

3

בלתי-חד-משמעית הנוגדת שידור ייצוגי אלימות.

"הספרות הקיימת" בוחן מחקרים קודמים בנושאי הבי.בי.סי, ערוץ אל ג'זירההפרק בנושא

, בנוסף למחקרים אקדמייםRT/Russia Todayאנגלית (ועמו ערוץ-האם בשפה הערבית) ו-

פיליפ סייב (אגה-סולטן. הפרק עושה שימוש נרחב במחקריו של הנוגעים לתקדימים למותה של

Philip Seibמנהל המרכז לדיפלומטיה ציבורית באוניברסיטת דרום קליפורניה, שכתב ,(

בהרחבה אודות אל ג'זירה ואודות מסגורם-מחדש של חומרים מתקשורת ההמונים באינטרנט.

תולדות ביקורת הסיקור הזר במזרח התיכון מאוזכרת בקצרה, ותשומת-לב מיוחדת מוענקת

לכתיבתו של אדוארד סעיד ולתמורות שחלו בסיקור המזרח בתיכון לפני עידן האינטרנט

ובמהלכו.

אגה-סולטן – ולקטעי הווידאו עצמם – מופיעים במגווןתקדימים אפשריים לסיקור מותה של

) בנושא השפעת רדיו הטרנזיסטור הנישאHall Gardnerמחקרים, ובהם מחקרו של הל גרדנר (

; הטקסטים של אדריאן ראסל בנוגע להשפעות1989על סיקור אירועי כיכר טיין-אן-מן בשנת

Markמארק דז (; ניתוחו של 2006המדיה החדשה על סיקור המהומות בפרברי פריז בשנת

Deuzeטלפונים הסלולאריים בעלי יכולות צילום הוידאו בהפיכת "מתבוננים") את תפקיד ה

ל"יצרנים"; ומחקרים נוספים אחרים בנושא תפקיד המדיה החברתית ותוכן-המשתמשים

.2003בסיקור הפלישה לעיראק בשנת

-זמננו בנושאי השפעת נושאי המגדר, היופי, הנשיותבשלב זה מוזכרים גם מחקרים בני

RTוהפמיניזם על סיקור התקשורת את מות אגה-סולטן. סיקור הבי.בי.סי, אל ג'זירה אנגלית ו-

לא הגיע לרמת גסותו של אותו העיתון הבריטי שכינה את אגה-סולטן "המלאך אמנם מעולם

Peggyמאיראן"; אבל בחרתי בכל זאת לבחון את כתיבתם של מחברים כגון פגי דרקסלר (

Drexler) וגולברג באשי (Golbarg Bashiבנסיון לבחון את השאלה המורכבת, כיצד השפיע ,(

מגדרה של אגה-סולטן על סיקור מותה.

-כן אני מסכם את ההיסטוריה העשירה של המחקר בנושא הבי.בי.סי. בשנים האחרונותכמו

התפרסמו מחקרים רבים בנושא אגפי איסוף החדשות, המולטימדיה והדיפלומטיה של הערוץ.

) חקרו, למשל, את יחסי הערוץ עם האיזור במסגרתMohammed Ayishסייב ומוחמד עייש (

שירותיו השונים בערבית ובפרסית ושידוריו בשפה האנגלית. אני מתייחס גם למחקרו הסמכותי

) ולמחקרי אחרים בנושא פעולותיו הפנימיות של הערוץ.Philip Schlesingerשל פיליפ שלזינגר (

מוזכרים גם מחקרים פנימיים של הבי.בי.סי. עצמו בנוגע לשימוש במדיה החברתית בתוך רשת

השידור. לבסוף, אני עורך סקירה כללית של ההאשמות בסיקור מוטה שהופנו נגד הערוץ – ושל

יישומן האפשרי לסיקור הערוץ את מות אגה-סולטן.

. מטבע גילןRT'זריה אנגלית ו-אני מסכם גם את הכתיבה האקדמית הקיימת בנושא אל ג

2

תקציר

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Soltan-שנורתה למוות בטהרן במהלך ההפגנות שנערכו שם26), האזרחית האיראנית בת ה

. לפחות שני צלמים תיעדו את מותה, צילומיהם שודרו בחדשות2009אחרי הבחירות בשנת

הטלוויזיה בכל רחבי העולם, והירי הפך לאחד הדימויים המזוהים ביותר עם ההפגנות.

התקשורת הבינלאומית באיראן הסתמכה רבות על תוכן-המשתמשים שהעלו המתבוננים

באירועים לרשת. השימוש בחומרים אלה הפך לצורת סיקור נוחה עבור גופי תקשורת אלה,

בייחוד כאשר כמה מעובדיהם גורשו מאיראן. זמינותם הרבה של טלפונים סלולאריים בעלי

יכולות צילום וידאו התגלמה במבול צילומי וידאו של ההפגנות והעצרות, שחלקן הידרדרו

לאלימות קשה.

RT ) Russia: הבי.בי.סי, אל ג'זירה אנגלית ו-נטלתי סיקור ספציפי משלוש רשתות שידור

Todayערוץ חדשות בינלאומי בשפה האנגלית במימון ממשלת רוסיה. התזה מתרכזת בסיקור ,(

החדשות האינטרנטי של שלוש הרשתות – בנושא אגה-סולטן בפרט והאירועים באיראן בכלל.

הסיקור כולל טקסטים, קטעי וידאו ואודיו המוזרמים באתריהן וצילומי טלוויזיה ששודרו גם

(מועד מותה2009 ביוני, 20). מסגרת הזמן לניתוח הסיקור בתזה זו: מה-Youtubeבאתר יוטיוב (

20. מסגרת-זמן זו מחולקת לשלוש תת-תקופות: ה-2009 בדצמבר , 31של אגה-סולטן) ועד ה-

בספטמבר22 ביוני עד ה-23 ביוני (הסיקור הראשוני של מות אגה-סולטן); ה-22ביוני עד ה-

23(סיקור נרחב, אירועים נוספים וניתוח חדשותי בששת החודשים שאחרי מות אגה-סולטן); וה-

וסיכומי סוף השנה).2009 בדצמבר (חדשות כלליות בשנת 31בספטמבר עד ה-

, וזאת לפי שני קטעי2009 ביוני, 20-סולטן, בתאריך ה-התזה פותחת בשחזור מותה של אגה

וידאו ("קטע א'" ו"קטע ב'") המתעדים את רגעיה האחרונים. בשני הקטעים ניתן אמנם לראות

צלמים רבים, אך מדובר בשני הקטעים היחידים שהועלו לאינטרנט עד היום. תיאור מותה של

אגה-סולטן מגובה בשחזור המידע הכלול בשלושה קטעי וידאו נוספים שהועלו על-ידי משתמשים

לרשת, והמתעדים את הימצאותה-לכאורה בטהרן באותו היום. הן בקטעי "המוות" והן בשלושת

Hamidקטעי הוידאו מטהרן, מופיעה אגה-סולטן בחברת מורה למוסיקה, חאמיד פאנאהי (

Panahi.(

-כך בטהרןהמבוא ממשיך בהסבר שילוב הגורמים הייחודי שהוביל להפקת קטעי וידאו רבים כל

: זמינותם הרבה של טלפונים סלולאריים בעלי יכולות צילום וידאו, השימוש באתרי2009ביוני

) ויוטיוב, והיחסים בין אזרחי איראןFacebook), פייסבוק (Twitterרישות חברתי מסוג טוויטר (

לחברי הפזורה האיראנית. התזה מנסה למקם את הפצת קטעי הווידאו של אגה-סולטן לאורך

ציר-זמן; ולהסביר את אחד ההיבטים המסבכים את הסיפור: העובדה שכמה קטעי וידאו

ראשוניים על אגה-סולטן נמחקו מאתר יוטיוב (וזאת כחלק ממחיקתם של רוב קטעי הווידאו

), אתר שניסח בעת מותה של אגה-סולטן מדיניות2009שסיקרו את האירועים האלימים ביוני

1

גוריון בנגב- אוניברסיטת בן

הפקולטה למדעי הרוח והחברה

המחלקה ללימודי המזרח התיכון

סולטאן ומהומות הבחירות באיראן באמצעות-ניתוח תיאורים של מות אגא

שמממונים בידי המדינה, של טקסטים חדשותיים באנגלית

מוסמך למדעי הרוח"חיבור זה מהווה חלק מהדרישות לקבלת התואר (M.A) "והחברה

ניל אונגרלידר: מאת

ד"ר חגי רם: בהנחיית

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123

גוריון בנגב- אוניברסיטת בן

הפקולטה למדעי הרוח והחברה

המחלקה ללימודי המזרח התיכון

-סולטאן ומהומות הבחירות באיראן באמצעותניתוח תיאורים של מות אגא

של טקסטים חדשותיים באנגלית, שמממונים בידי המדינה

מוסמך למדעי הרוח"חיבור זה מהווה חלק מהדרישות לקבלת התואר (M.A) "והחברה

ניל אונגרלידר: מאת

ד"ר חגי רם: בהנחיית

ד"ר טל סמואל-עזרן : בהנחיית

2010ספטמבר 5771תשרי

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