Reported by PMOI/MEK
Iran, May 30, 2019 – Widespread protests targeting Iran’s state-run channel 5 TV being accused of insulting the Sunni community in southern Iran forced this TV station to fire the network’s director and the program manager.
During a show aired last Thursday, a panegyrist who had appeared as a guest apparently targeted the Sunni population of the southern provinces in an insulting manner causing anger among the Sunni community. The uproar pressed a number of Majlis (parliament) members to speak out against the TV station and demand answers from the show director.
Fearing the spread of the unrest and protest to other Sunni communities, the judiciary was forced to step in and issue a farce arrest warrant for the panegyrist in question. Of course, the panegyrist was shortly released after preliminary questioning. However, as protests continued, the TV station was forced to relieve the network’s director and the show manager to quell the public’s anger.
Fearing these protests would turn into a major popular uprising, the Tabnak website, affiliated to former Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) chief Mohsen Rezaie, now Secretary of the regime’s Expediency Discernment Council, wrote a warning for the entire regime apparatus.
“The cumulative actions from the beginning of this incident show the seriousness and the importance of having religious and ethnic unity in Iran,” he said.
