Head of State-run TV Resigns Following Months of Rumors

(Abdul Ali Ali-Asgari, the new head of Jaam-e Jam, speaking during a forum on media technology. Source: Payesh Online)

n Tuesday, May 10, 2016, rumors finally came true and Mohammad Sarafraz, head of Jaam-e Jam, the state-run media conglomerate that holds control of all TV and radio channels, resigned from his post less than two years in office.

Talks of Sarafraz resignation were circulating around since early March but strongly rejected by Jaam-e Jam officials. Amid rumors, names like Haddad Adel came up as the next president of the organization. Speculations became stronger after Haddad Adel, along with his fellow Principlists, failed to enter the parliament in February elections.

Sarafraz' resignation comes as a surprise, knowing that his predecessors all managed to serve their two consecutive five-year terms in the office. This tradition held true even for Sarafraz' immediate predecessor, Ezzatollah Zarghami, who despite his underperformance was still granted a second (conditional) term by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Tensions regarding the situation in state-run TV were bubbling beneath the surface during the recent months, and they turned into an open fight after Mohammad Tajik, director of Mostanad (Documentary) Channel, lashed out at former head of Jaam-e Jam Ezatollah Zarghami. Zarghami had mildly criticized Sarafraz' abrupt decision to shut down a number of channels due to critical budget deficit.

Tajik blamed Zarghami for fiscal problems of the state-run TV (including hundreds of billions of tomans in debt), and for his "irrational" increase of the number of TV channels. He implicitly called Zarghami the culprits for transfer of the rich pre-Revolution archive of the organization to Manoto TV, a popular, pro-monarchy satellite channel aired from London.

Outside Jaam-e Jam, little in detail is known about the credentials of Abdul Ali Ali-Asgari, the next president of the media conglomerate, who has unofficially started his work today. A brief profile released by the Principlist media on Tuesday shows that like his two predecessors, Ali-Asgari has served in Jaam-e Jam for a relatively long period. According to reports, he started his career in the organization in 2004 and as an advisor. His two key positions have been head of Iran Broadcasting University (a subsidiary of the state-run TV) and deputy for development and technology.

It would be premature to speculate about the extent of changes Ali-Asgari's appointment will bring to Jaam-e Jam, but one can easily predict that the organization's political agenda will remain largely intact. Since the early 1990s and inauguration of Ali Larijani as head of Jaam-e Jam, the organization has invariably served as the media arm of the Principlist front, a role which becomes most prominent during elections and during politically sensitive periods such as the 2009 post-election protests. Jaam-e Jam has hardly budged despite frequent calls by the Reformists for democratization and diversification, or at least permission for rival channels to run, and it will follow this trend in foreseeable future.

IRD/66