Popular TV Newsreader Dismissed for “No Reason at All”

Iran’s state television has dismissed a popular newsreader without any explanation.

News emerged in mid-February that Reza Hosseinzadeh [link in Persian] had not returned to work with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after a leave of absence for medical reasons. According to the newspaper Saba, his contract has not yet come to an end. 

“When we asked the TV’s News Department about Hosseinzadeh, everybody said something different,” the Saba article said. “Some said he was ill, some said he had retired, and so on.”

Then a reporter from Saba spoke with Hosseinzadeh himself. “In the past two years, I have had entanglements, and for the past two months I have been suspended for no reason at all,” he said. He added that he had not spoken up about his dismissal so that “enemy” and satellite TV stations outside Iran would not exploit what he had to say for their own agendas. “I am a soldier of this regime and a soldier in its soft war,” he told Saba. “I am asking to meet with Dr. Ali-Asgari [the president of IRIB] and say what I want to say to him only so that it will stay confidential...I also ask him to read the letter from me on his desk.”

The Saba reporter asked Hosseinzadeh if there was any truth in the reports that he had resigned. “I deny it vigorously,” he said. “Retirement is a label to whitewash the ugliness of a political newsreader who has been forced to sit at home. If you look at the history of IRIB you will find that no newsreader has retired at the age of 48. Does retirement have any meaning to a representative to the parliament or a politician? I joined IRIB when I was 18 and I have worked in this area for 30 years. Right when a newsreader is at the height of his professional maturity and it is at the best time to use his experience they push him aside.”

IRIB has frequently dismissed announcers with little or not explanation. Popular hosts, anchors and newsreaders working for state-run TV have repeatedly been banned from appearing on programs, either temporarily or permanently. The underlying reasons are sometimes political, or to do with the fact that the employees criticized IRIB officials. Other times, dismissals are connected with personal matters.