Free Expression & the “Soft War”

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Iran Clamps Down

[From The New York Times]: “In early September, [Iran’s] Brig. Gen. Muhammad Bagher-Zolghadr, the former deputy chief of the Revolutionary Guards, outlined the ‘soft war’ concept in a speech: ‘In a hard war, the line between you and the enemy is clear, but in a soft war there is nothing so solid. The enemy is everywhere.’ General Zolghadr said that a soft war was fought in large part through the media, and that the West was ‘better equipped’ to fight it than Iran.

“Soon after his speech, the authorities unrolled a series of measures seemingly aimed at redressing that imbalance. This month, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the head of the Basij militia, announced a new era of ‘super media power’ cooperation between the media and the Revolutionary Guards, according to the state-owned official press.

“The Revolutionary Guards plan to start a news agency called Atlas in the spring, modeled on services like the BBC and The Associated Press, according to semiofficial Iranian news sites.

“The Revolutionary Guards already largely control the Fars news agency, which reflects views of Iran’s hard-line camp. Two weeks ago Iran formed a 12-person unit to monitor the Internet for ‘insults and the spreading of lies,’ a phrase used to describe opposition activities, the semiofficial media reported.

“‘The enemy no longer invests in the military to advance their goals,’ said the official, Ali Daraei. ‘Their primary investment is in the media war through satellite channels.’”

—Robert F. Worth, New York Times,
reporting from Damascus, Syria. 11/24/09 URL

Editor’s Note: Winning hearts and minds.

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