A journalist has been issued a warning and faces a possible court case after regulators said comments he made on live television were “unprofessional.”
Speaking about the recent Plasco Building fire in Tehran, Adel Ferdousipour suggested on January 23 that some officials should be removed from their jobs because of the disaster.
During the live broadcast, which was aired on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s (IRIB) Channel 3 program Iran TV, Ferdousipour said, “If the Plasco fire happened in any other country, at least some managers and officials would resign.”
The IRIB’s Center for Monitoring and Evaluation issued a warning to Ferdousipour on January 26. Mohammad Reza Arab Sorkhi, a member of the monitoring group, which oversees all IRIB television and radio programs, told Fars News agency, “Ferdosipour’s comment was unprofessional” and that “he should not talk about any other subject apart from sports.” Ferdousipour is the regular presenter of Iran’s most popular live TV program, 90, which reports on football and other sports. The January 23 Iran TV show also featured a guest appearancee from a referee from the firefighters’ association football league as a guest on the program, so it did have a sports angle.
Fars also reported that a prosecuting attorney had opened a case against the TV presenter, but did not provide any further information about this, or about whether he had appointed a lawyer.
The regulators also issued a warning to Ali Asghar Pourmohammadi, director of Channel 3, which broadcasts the show.
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