The London-based Persian service of British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC Persian, is gradually losing its audience inside Iran, says an IRIB official in Tehran. According to the most recent poll, BBC Persian is less popular now among Iranian viewers than it was eight months ago, said Hassan Abedini, managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)’s foreign news department.
BBC Persian leaped to fame during the 2009 presidential elections in Iran, Mr Abedini said, adding that its fate would be the same as the Persian service of Voice of America (VOA) when it was first launched. “The VOA TV’s flaws and its biased approach to the developments in Iran caused the broadcaster to lose its credibility among the Iranian audience. This was the case for BBC Persian, because its credibility soon faded and it lost its audience to below 25 percent since 8 months ago according to the polls”, said the IRIB official.
(Source: Press TV)
Andy Sennitt comments: Whether intentionally or through poor translation, the meaning of the phrase “lost its audience to below 25 percent since 8 months ago” isn’t clear. Are they really claiming that more than 75 percent of the people who were watching eight months ago have stopped watching? And, given that most people in Iran would not admit to an Iranian official that they watch BBC Persian, how do they know?
on Dec 28th, 2010 at 17:48
Sounds like IRIB propaganda. LOL