Shame on ABC: An Iranian Student Responds to ABC’s Nightline report by Bob Woodruff

The other night ABC’s Nightline broadcast an interview from inside of Iran. I received a number of emails about the broadcast. I did not see it, but my readers follow the events in Iran closely they told me they were amazed at the questions in the interview and the naivete or deceit of the interviewer, Bob Woodruff. They were concerned that the American public was given a false understanding of what is happening in Iran. Many said the broadcast appeared to be shameful propaganda for the Iranian regime.

One of those angered by the broadcast was a student who just escaped Iran for supporting its pro-democracy forces there. This student wrote the following public statement to ABC News, Bob Woodruff and the Nightline staff, and asked me to publish it here:

A few nights ago, I was watching ABC's Nightline and I was angered to discover how the main stream media could twist what is happening in my poor country. The report was broadcast just two nights after the deadly protests of Tehran which resulted in death of 8 young Iranian soccer fans.

Nightline’s Bob Woodruff was in Tehran and met with some young Iranians and asked them how they felt about their government, society and freedom.
Unfortunately, he was able to get them to say what he wanted to hear!

He asked them if they knew how the regime arrests freedom loving people or how many newspapers had been shut down.

None of those who were questioned could answer the questions properly. One responded, “I do not know how they arrest people, I have never heard that they arrest people.” Another girl in the session said the same thing. Such statements are beyond belief.

I can speak from personal experience. Iranians know the danger of being arrested in Iran for violating one of the many so called crimes against the Islamic Republic. One may be arrested for simply being with a friend of the opposite sex. I was arrested twice for walking with my girl friend in the streets of Tehran. I know how they arrest people both in public and in private. Most of my friends have been caught for exercising their basic rights of freedom in Iran.

If Bob Woodruff wanted the truth, he should have sought out the stories of those who have been get caught by the regime militias or police forces. Then he would understand why we want an end to this regime.

Mr. Woodruff, “What kind of question was that to ask these young Iranians?” If you wanted to know if the Iranian regime arrests people, just watch CNN or other news channel files on Iran's July 1999 protests and you would be able to see the answer with your own eyes.

Why doesn't the mainstream media talk to people who are willing to talk, people like me and the thousands of Iranians like me who have the courage to talk about the mad Mullahs and their brutal reign?

I felt sorry for those in that interview session with Bob Woodruff. I suspect they were frightened. They were likely afraid of the consequences of their contact with the foreign media. Or they were cowards, lacking the strength to speak out against the Mullahs before a foreign audience. Sadly, they lost a great moment to tell the truth about the regime and I am so sorry for them.

Today, the world needs to know why so many of us in Iran hate the Mullahs ruling our beloved country. The world needs to know why we are so angry and desperate. The sad fact is that Iran’s human rights record is getting worse every day and the only way we can attract the world’s attention to our country's problems is to talk to the mainstream media. I thought reporters coming to Iran would seek out the truth and report it. However, now I really doubt there is any fair and un-biased media existing in this world.

I ask you Mr. Woodruff, we are just learning what the Iranian regime did to the visiting Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi in the infamous Evin prison. Have you ever heard about her? Have you tried to talk to her family? If you would have talked to her family, you could have found out how they arrest people in Iran from them. You could have also discovered what can happen to those who get caught by the regime. It is so easy to find out the truth in Iran. Mr. Woodruff, turn off your camera and talk to people in the streets of Tehran.

I am not writing here to protest the way my fellow Iranians answered Bob Woodruff’s questions. What I am trying to say is that the left leaning mainstream media in the US appear to have no respect for those who fight for their own freedom!

We, in Iran, do seek a legitimate form of government which respects all groups of people and behave like a civilized regime in the world and represent all Iranians in a very democratic way.

I was so ashamed of my Iranian brethren who did not dare talk about the dirty deeds of the regime. But I can not blame them. I know in what conditions they are living and how frustrating it is!

Perhaps they were really tired of talking because there is no body listening to them!?

What I have been asking myself was it possible that ABC either hired those guys to say what Bob Woodruff wanted them to say and hear or were they just too frightened to speak out.

The truth will come out once my country is free and we proudly take back our country from the evil rule of the radical Mullahs.

God Bless Iran!
Freedom for Iranians!

I hope ABC is listening.