IRIB Director Rumored To Have Resigned
Sarafraz, ex-director at PressTV, was heir to a large state-run organization with a myriad of financial problems but he has, by prioritizing agility through layoffs under his leadership, managed to help the already semi-bankrupt organization survive for eighteen more months. However, with the organization under the magnifying glass from every corner, the state-run TV and radio service underwent a tsunami of gaffes including as well instances of financial mismanagement.
Efforts to end the sulks by several popular presenters, comedians and show runners and make them comeback eventually boomeranged in the form of protests and controversies over offending tribal, professional or ethnic minorities. Other minor TV and radio personalities who were marginalized or out of job as a consequence of the financial decline fled the country and removed their veils, literally or metaphorically, upon exiting the borders, to join Persian satellite channels believed to be sponsored by enemies of the Islamic Republic. Even the massive downsizing within the organization fell short of helping with the budget deficit, as the organization is now in debts million dollars deeper. The privatization of the right to air commercials on the ‘national media’ to a shadowy group, rumored to be affiliated with the ‘deviationist’ cohort, came under harsh criticism for the side’s lack of specialty, relevant background, and ability to pay even the first installment. The move was even debated by the State Inspectorate Organization.
Some other blunders have more directly concerned Mr. Sarafraz personally. An unprecedented alleged sexual harassment scandal surfaced around Sarafraz’s trusted newsroom director at PressTV, along whom he is banned from the EU on the accusation of severe human rights violation “for airing a 10-second interview with Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari in 2009, following post-election riots in Iran”. Add to all this, the abrupt runaway of Shahrzad Mirgholikahn, formerly in US custody over providing the Iranian government with military equipment who had become Sarafraz’s special inspector to help you have a heli shot of the man’s herculean dossier!
Sarafraz’s squad has also lost the upper hand in a ping-pong of financial accusations with ex-director Zarghami. The final blow however seems to come from the principlists’ defeat, or what they rather call it as a Pyrrhic victory in the twin parliament and assembly of experts elections held in late February. The national media, constantly criticized to have monopolized all its resources at the disposal of the camp, failed to combat social media campaigns, promoted as well on mobile applications such as Telegram, that helped the reformists to achieve landslide victories in both elections, especially in larger cities including more importantly the capital.
The rumors of Sarafraz’s resignation are increasingly turning into more formal news articles, with speculations about who the next director-general will be. Even though resignation from posts appointed by the Supreme Leader is a rarity and might be the end of a political or executive career in Iran, it is apparently final that Sarafraz will base his on a worsened herniated disc.
Gholamali Haddad Adel, former presidential candidate and the leading principlist running for Majlis but blocked after the reformist-moderate coalition’s victory in Tehran, is named alongside former IRIB deputies Hassan Khojasteh and Abdolali Ali-Asgari as the potential nominees for the position. Ali-Asgari, dubbed as the father of digital TV in Iran, is considered the most likely. In fact, Tabnak, a site affiliated with IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaei and at the center of the whole story, reported that Ali-Asgari’s security guard was upgraded to the director-general level and Sarafraz has bid farewell to colleagues in his office in Jame Jam. IRIB’s public relations has declined to comment in what has been interpreted as an implicit confirmation. Ali-Asgari, IRIB’s Technical Deputy Director under Zarghami, is an electronics engineer with an MA in management and a PhD in system management and productivity. He has also been in SAVAK custody before the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and has a long executive history in cultural decision-making centers.
Though the financial empire that the IRIB used to be is on the verge of collapse and needs imminent aid from governmental resources, what sure is at stake for the next director of IRIB will be the way he (or she?) could handle the presidential campaigns up next year. According to rumors that are making the rounds at the moment of writing, the Supreme Leader will appoint Ali-Asgari as the director-general for a temporary one-year term.