L.A.-Based TV Rallies To Iranian Protesters` Cause

Openly critical of Tehran`s Islamic government for years, Channel One has urged viewers in Iran to join in civil disobedience.

Inside a studio perched atop a suburban strip mall, producers at Channel One TV pore over hundreds of pictures electronically spirited out of Iran by protesters challenging their nation's disputed presidential election.

The station is one of several Farsi-language television and radio outlets in Los Angeles bringing news, images and the voices of political turmoil in Iran to a worldwide audience, including Iranians subjected to a government-imposed media blackout in their own country.

Those satellite TV and radio stations have long served as fixtures in the social fabric of L.A.'s well-heeled "Tehrangeles" community, comprising the world's largest concentration of ethnic Iranians outside Iran.

Lately, they also have played a key role in rallying Iranian-Americans to the cause of Iranian demonstrators mounting wide-scale street protests after the official election defeat of political moderate Mirhossein Mousavi by incumbent hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Openly critical of Tehran's Islamic government for years, Channel One has urged viewers in Iran to join in civil disobedience. The station also promoted a rally by Los Angeles-area college students in support of Iranian protesters on Sunday and sought to drum up attendance for a second such L.A. gathering set for June 20.

While precise figures are unavailable, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people of Iranian heritage reside in Southern California, most in and around Los Angeles, drawn to the area by family connections and a climate similar to that of Tehran.

The upcoming L.A. rally also was promoted in electronic flyers circulated via the Internet under a banner that read, "Stop Killing Innocent People in Iran" with a photo of a recent mass protest in Tehran's Freedom Square.

At least seven people were killed in street battles in Tehran on Monday, according to Iranian state media.

CELL-PHONE IMAGES

Much of what the outside world has glimpsed of Iran's civil unrest has originated from photos and video clips clandestinely captured by protesters themselves -- often on cell phones -- and transmitted to news outlets abroad.

Such footage aired by Channel One this week included video of a female protester striking a police officer, while another clip showed what appeared to be pro-government paramilitary forces opening fire on demonstrators from a building.

In one particularly grisly photo, a young man is seen bleeding from his neck, helped along by fellow demonstrators.

"It's horrible, horrible because we see him dying even though people there are trying to help him," said Assal Pahlevan, a Channel One correspondent and host.

She said the young people in the vanguard of Iran's demonstrations have told her their cause goes beyond support for Mousavi.

"They said, 'You know what, Assal? I could lose my life and it doesn't bother me. But I know that we will get to what we wanted from the beginning, and that's liberty and democracy," Pahlevan recounted.

Shahram Homayoun, president of Channel One, has received some 1,500 emails daily from inside Iran, many of them containing nuggets of information and images that he has aired in his round-the-clock broadcasts of news and commentary.

Iranians in the country phone in regularly to Channel One, usually using a prepaid calling card or cell phone to avoid detection by authorities.

Channel One officials say they have admonished activists in Iran to refrain from violence but are not opposed to more creative forms of protest. During his broadcast on Wednesday, Homayoun relayed a story from the Iranian city of Shiraz about protesters who offered security forces tainted orange juice, then watched as the men fled with diarrhea.

Despite increased jamming of its signal by Iranian authorities in recent months, Channel One estimates that it manages to reach as much as 15 percent of Iran's population of more than 70 million people.

"We want to overturn the government without bloodshed," Homayoun said through a translator.