Tarzana's PARS-TV Gets Word Out to Iran

When Ayatollah Khomeini incited the Iranian revolution in 1979, he sent tape cassettes from exile in Paris to his followers, spreading his message and giving instructions.

Thirty years later, as Iranian citizens have taken to the streets again -- this time to protest the repressive government Khomeini helped to create -- Hossein Hedjazi is sending his own message from abroad -- but without the cassettes.

Hedjazi, an Iranian expatriate who lives in Los Angeles, hosts a weekly newscast on PARS-TV, which broadcasts out of Tarzana, California. The first TV station in the Persian community, its mostly political programming is sent by satellite worldwide -- all in Farsi.

It even reaches viewers in Iran, despite the efforts of the Iranian government, which has blamed Western media outlets for encouraging protesters.

“Four or five times they have blocked it, but the station goes through different routes, piggybacking on other satellite operators,” Hedjazi told TheWrap. “They have been very cooperative helping us in that.”

Hedjazi not only hosts his own show, he also calls in to or appears on the station's other shows, breaking news or giving his take on events across the globe. “We are trying to be informative and tell the people we are there to support them,” Hedjazi said. 

But he is unabashed in his criticism of the government, which officially upheld the election results Monday. On his show that night, he discussed the ongoing protests, emphasizing the violence perpetrated by the army and royal police.

“They have, under the name of the god and religion, deprived the people of many things we had in the time of the Shah,” Hedjazi said. “Not that in the time of the Shah we had full freedom, but we had freedom in many areas.”

He is even more outspoken when it comes to supporting the regime's detractors.  Most of the footage the station airs comes straight from the protesters, who send in videos mostly through email.

“It's amazing what the women, the young girls and overall the people are doing, especially the students that are trying to get the news out of Iran by hacking into different routes they find -- Twitter, Facebook -- because all other means of communication with the free world are lost,” he said.

What moves Hedjazi most has been the display of unity in what he said has traditionally been a fractured community, and he sees PARS' broadcasts as a way to encourage and promote it.

“I tell them to please put all of the personal differences aside," he said. "We are all Iranian and are all fighting for one cause -- freedom, human rights, freedom of speech of opinion and separation of church and state.”

Founded to “provide a sense of political and cultural harmony,” PARS is run by Amir Shadjareh, a native of Tehran, who founded the network in 1998 after running Channel 18, the first Persian late-night TV production company for eight years.

 

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