BBC Faramework and Iran News

BBC Framework in General:

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is an independent news corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is one of the world's largest broadcast news organizations and generates hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The website contains international news coverage, as well as British, entertainment, science, and political news. Many reports are accompanied by audio and video from the BBC's television and radio news services, while the latest TV and radio bulletins are also available to view or listen to on the site together with other current programs.
The service maintains 44 foreign news bureaus and has correspondents in almost every country. Within the BBC construction, the term “correspondent” is referred to a journalist or commentator in an area of specialty who contributes reports to this news agency to be appeared on radio, television news or BBC News Online or it refers to another type of company, a foreign correspondent , from a remote, often distant, location stationed in a foreign country.
Depending on unfavorable situations to the ruling governments, BBC news reporters and broadcasts are now or have been banned in several countries; and, Iran isn’t an exception of this category. Even though BBC news online and BBC television are currently banned from broadcasting in Iran, BBC still has a correspondent in Tehran who observes and monitors news stories.

Source of News:

The BBC is required by its royal charter to be free from both political and commercial influence and to report news stories impartially; and, the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on Politics and Public Policy state that while "the voices and opinions of opposition parties must be routinely aired and challenged", "the government of the day will often be the primary source of news" (from "Editorial Guidelines Extracts", BBC)

It is also said that “BBC Monitoring”, with an increasing number of international offices in Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, provides open source news and information to a range of clients, including in government, academia and the media, based on its continuous (round the clock) monitoring of TV, radio, press, internet and news agency sources worldwide and then translates the reports into English from more than 100 languages. This service believes that it focuses on “the words as spoken" - accurate and impartial translations of what happened, plus understanding how the media reported an event.

Having the above brief framework of BBC in mind and a general consideration of those news stories from Iran related to presidential election of 2013 covered by BBC News Online showed that BBC News Online doesn’t usually mention from which news agency inside or outside of Iran, the stories are reported or translated. It doesn’t also cite the name of the reporters or commentators on news.
Based on this observation, the assumption of that BBC may translate all or a remarkable part of its news coverage from inside Iran’s news agencies is denied because it cannot be said clearly that if BBC publishes a specific piece of news from what its reporters’ or correspondents’ observe or if it publishes the news stories based on a translation from Farsi; and to what extent it may be a combination of both.

In continue, the same is considered on CNN and Aljazeera News coverage on Iran presidential election 2013; afterwards, the interpretation and the reflection of this specific event on these three media will be focused.  

Rapid Adoption of Emergent Norms

The global economic depression that developed following World War I challenged the intent of the League of Nations. Given the desperations, anxieties, and frustrations (especially in Europe), the potential for conflict was inevitable if examined retrospectively.  Following the conclusion of the Great War, many nations turned their focus internally and adopted an isolationist stance.  Moral and governmental reform, such Prohibition in the United States and Communism in Russia, indicated a philosophical approach designed for societal benefit.  However, these reforms were not universal within the community of nations at large.  Furthermore, this isolationist stance undermined the capabilities of international relief organizations to provide a stabilizing effect, which had an unfortunate consequence of amplifying existing angst.

The drums of war once again sounded in Europe with Germany’s aggression against her neighbors.  Soon, annexation and invasion became commonplace, but true horror manifested with genocide.  The international community was perplexed by this conduct – and this shock prevented any action beyond international condemnation.  However, once Germany was defeated in combat, the international community reevaluated its position and convicted participants and antagonists of the “Final Solution” with Crimes against Humanity.  Although crimes against humanity had been discussed before, the importance of the Nuremberg Trials has been underestimated in importance of shifting an international norm.

One might argue that the Nuremberg Trials were an extension of the surrender of Germany.  That oversimplification is possible, given the military nature of conduct as well as the nature of accusations.  However, a deeper exploration exposes the international cooperation that underwrote the legitimacy of this prosecution.  An international sense of justice (outside of armed conflict) was transitioning from concept to codification.  As further evidence of this codification, the international community proposed and endorsed the following instruments:

• The Genocide Convention of 1948; 
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948;
• The Nuremberg Principles of 1950 (Officially qualifies War Crimes);
• The Convention on the Abolition of the Statute of Limitations on War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in 1968; and 
• The Geneva Convention on the Laws and Customs of War first adopted in 1949 and updated with supplementary protocols in 1977.

 The rapid adoption of these protocols, resolutions, and conventions indicates two possible rationales.  First, the collective guilt of inaction during the genocide of World War II suggests that a mechanism of prevention required international agreement.  Second (and more simplistic) – that the overall tone and norm of the global population had shifted to amplified awareness and a willingness to hold each other accountable.  Granted, this instruments of accountability, as well as ways, were far from solidified – this approach demonstrates that notions of sovereignty were being challenged.  Additionally, a degree of responsibility was beginning to collectively be imposed on protecting civilians from atrocities.

IRAN DAILY, A Direct English Translation of IRAN in Farsi?

Following the research on Iranian newspapers and considering if the English IRAN DAILY is the translation of IRAN from Farsi, what comes hereafter is the result of first analysis which has been done so far:

All the pieces of news, reports and analyses about the 2013 presidential election printed on IRAN newspaper in Farsi and IRAN DAILY in English are considered and compared. The data pieces are retrieved from the archives of these two papers available online and on their website. The pieces of news and reports are all related to a specific period of time, i.e. 10 days, from 7 days before election to 3 days after that. Then, through a day-to-day comparison of headings and body of the news and the reports in both Farsi and English, the process of translation, if any, is considered.

A.      IRAN Newspaper and 2013 Presidential Election

IRAN newspaper is the Farsi newspaper published in Iran in 32 pages and covers all aspects of society including politics, social affairs, economics, culture, sport, cinema, art, etc. Each page is devoted to one of the above aspects and on each page various sections are appeared. Although the front page structure differs from one issue to another based on the amount and also the importance of news and reports, the general format of the front page is a combination of large, bold headings and small headings usually in black in addition to a part or the whole part of the body of news pieces. On most of the issues, there’s no large image related to a specific report and there are only small images appeared beside each frame, most of which are from special figures the heading or the quote is related. It seems that the headings are usually picked up from the quotes of important figures of the society. On page 2 and 3, the detailed political issues are appeared and during some days before the presidential election, a special page called “Toward the Epic” was added to the paper on page 29, in which the news, reports, analyses and opinions about the election were covered. All the pieces of news and reports related to the election were printed on the front page, page 2, 3 and 29. After the election, the page “Toward the Epic” was removed and for two days, another page called “Image Frame” was added to the paper on which the images from the election and people turnout in different sizes were put together.

IRAN newspaper is not published on Fridays as it is the weekend in Iran; therefore, on the day of the election that was on Friday, 14 June 2013, no issue was published.

Sources of Data, the Election Issues Mostly Covered and its Orientation

In analyzing ten issues of IRAN newspaper, published before and after the presidential election, it was noticed that most of news pieces or reports related to the election are derived from Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Raja News, Jahan News and in some cases from Fars News. On those pieces which were directly reported by IRAN, there was no name of the author or reporter and it was mentioned at the top of each piece, that it was produce, for example, by the paper politic group.

The analysis of ten issues generally demonstrated that IRAN newspaper has not covered the subject of the election very hot and in detailed. On the issues before the election, most of the news and reports concentrated on encouraging and advising people to participate in polls, mostly from the outstanding figures of the government and religious leaders; that is completely usual and it is considered as a method of unity in the society between the government and people in the life of Islamic republic. Although IRAN newspaper had tried to cover the election process, the debates, the campaigns, the candidates’ plans and objectives in an all-aspect real neutral way, it seemed that in most of news pieces, it was affected by the current government. It had referred to most of the candidates criticisms against the current government as being unfair and not appreciated. The number of news related to the reformist was much less than those related to conservatives and fundamentalist, and it could be seen that those issues related to the reformist candidates were not only highlighted but also were printed on the bottom corners of the pages.

On the issues after the election, although the election itself was considered as a unique event among Iranians and also outside the borders of Iran, IRAN newspaper had not reflected so much surprising happiness about the result of the election and the victory of reformists through headings, news bodies and even images. The major news sections were circled around praising people who participated in polls and created the political epic and some congratulation messages from government figures and religious leaders.
 

B.      IRAN DAILY Newspaper and 2013 Presidential Election

IRAN DAILY is the English newspaper published in Iran mostly for foreign speakers. It is in 12 pages and covers all the aspect of society in the areas of politics, culture, art, economics, and science in two parts of domestic news and foreign news. It is much more colorful than IRAN in Farsi. IRAN DAILY general structure seems more systematic than IRAN in Farsi and in all the issues considered for this study, the structural frame was the same. On Front page, the headings related to the most important issues and in some cases a part of the news are also appeared, the important headings are larger than the others and the images related to highlighted news are printed in large size too. The important headings related to the presidential election were printed on the front page and the whole details had come on page 2 and 3 under the National section.

Sources of Data, the Election Issues Mostly Covered and its Orientation

After studying all the sections reported by IRAN DAILY in English on ten issues related to before and after election, it was obvious that the major source of news was Press TV which is an English media inside Iran. There were also some citations from IRNA, ISNA and Fars news within the body of the news. On most news sections, the name of author, reporter or translator was not mentioned. It seemed that there were no clues of translation process except for the specific quotes from people. All the news parts were in a clear and systematic way which was easy to find what is looked for.

On the issues before the election, the election and all the noticeable events related to that including the candidates’ plans, debates, campaigns, etc were covered in a neutral opinion and without any orientation to any political party. The headlines were usually bold and large and highlighted the most important part; and, beside the important sections, an attractive image was attached. There was also a column on left hand of page 2, on which the most important plans, objectives and/or quotes from candidates were highlighted and this section devoted at least one part to each candidate. The order of presenting news from each candidate was from top to down and the order based on the candidates’ names fairly varied in each issue.

On the issues after the election also, the results of the election, the percentages of votes from the highest to the lowest, the images of the candidates with a large heading stated the victory of Rouhani as the president of Iran in the first pace were reflected. They also contained numerous congratulation messages to the future president and special thanks to Iranian people who created the year political epic.

C.      Is IRAN DAILY a Direct English Translation of IRAN in Farsi?

Reading through all the news sections related to the presidential election and a one-to-one comparison of headings and bodies of news pieces in IRAN with the English version on IRAN DAILY, shows that English pieces of news in IRAN DAILY are not a translation from the Farsi version of IRAN and each piece of news is derived from a report by a reporter or from English news agencies like press TV. Through comparing both English and Persian issues on the same day, it was cleared not only the headings are not the same, but also each of these newspapers took different topics into account and had different reflections on each topic.

Although the English version was shorter in length, it covered more issues in the format of news and not political opinions.