Ray Hanania show discusses upcoming Iranian elections, recent Arab News exclusive with exiled crown prince

Rhrs Ali Safavi Raisi human rights
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Updated 05 April 2022
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Ray Hanania show discusses upcoming Iranian elections, recent Arab News exclusive with exiled crown prince

CHICAGO: The leading candidate in Iran’s June 18 elections is a man who has already been sanctioned by both the US and EU for human rights violations and brutality against dissidents, including the torture and killing of children, Ali Safavi, a board member of the world’s leading dissident organization, said on Wednesday.

Appearing on “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” hosted by the US Arab Radio Network and sponsored by Arab News, Safavi urged the West to condemn the elections which he called “a sham,” and end “appeasement” as a strategy to lure Iran away from its nuclear weapons program.

The lead candidate favored by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was Sayyid Ebrahim Raisol-Sadati, known as Ebrahim Raisi, who Khamenei appointed in March 2019 as Iran’s chief justice. Safavi noted that Raisi was dubbed by Iranians as “the henchman of 1988” because of his role in the massacre of more than 30,000 Iranian political prisoners that took place that year.

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“Raisi became a prosecutor at the age of 19. He didn’t go to university. He didn’t even finish seminary school. All he has done in 41 years of his adult life has been issuing death sentences for dissidents. He was a key member of the ‘death commission’ in 1988 in Tehran where 30,000 were massacred upon a fatwa by (Ayatollah) Khomeini, the founder of this regime,” Safavi said.

“Khamenei wants to put him (Raisi) in charge precisely because he wants to suppress any form of dissent. The international community has to ask itself, are we going to deal with this man? Are we going to shake his bloodied hands?

“You know that Raisi is in two sanction lists of the treasurer department in the US and the EU list for violations of human rights. That is the key question. I think the Americans and the Europeans have to look themselves in the mirror and basically think about what they are going to do because Iranians reject this regime. They don’t want this regime,” Safavi added.

He said Khamenei was orchestrating Raisi’s rise in the tightly controlled election selection process to be one of the few candidates who could run, adding that this was Khamenei’s second attempt to get Raisi elected as president.

Accused of “many human rights abuses,” Raisi previously ran for president in 2017 but lost to the now outgoing president, Hassan Rouhani, who was first elected as president in 2013.

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“Elections in Iran have never been about a democratic process where the people of Iran can express their views freely. It is in one short term, a travesty. It is neither fair nor free,” Safavi said.

“A vetting body, the Guardian Council with 12 members, six of whom are appointed by the Supreme Leader and six others by the judiciary chief who is himself appointed by the Supreme Leader, vet all of the candidates. And of course, whoever becomes a candidate must prove their heartfelt allegiance and practical loyalty to the Supreme Leader.

“This year there was a total of 592 candidates. Out of those 592, the Guardian Council eliminated all but seven,” he added.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Raisi and several other members of Iran’s judiciary in March 2019.

According to the OFAC, they oversaw the practice of torture and execution of many dissidents, including children. The practices “involved torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners in Iran, including amputations,” the OFAC report said.

A UN report revealed that Iran’s judiciary sanctioned the execution of a number of child offenders, despite human rights law prohibitions against the death penalty for anyone under the age of 18. There are at least 90 child offenders currently on death row in Iran.

In addition, between September 2018 and July 2019, at least eight prominent lawyers were arrested for defending political prisoners and human rights defenders, many of whom have received lengthy sentences by Iran’s judiciary.

Raisi’s long history of brutality is widely documented. As deputy prosecutor general of Tehran, he participated in a so-called death commission that ordered the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.

The following year he became the prosecutor general of Tehran serving until 1994. Raisi quickly rose in power, becoming the first deputy head of the judiciary from 2004 to 2014, involved in the brutal crackdown on Iran’s Green Movement protests that followed the chaotic and disorderly 2009 election. He became Iran’s prosecutor general from 2014 to 2016 before heading the judiciary.

Safavi said the responsibility to overthrow the regime rested on the people of Iran, but they needed the support of the West which had to stop its policies of appeasement.

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“The task of overthrowing this regime rests singularly on the shoulders of the Iranian people and the organized resistance movement that is growing as we speak. It has gained tremendous traction and appeal within Iranian society. They are quite capable and willing, basically, to provide the kind of sacrifice that is needed to bring down such a murderous regime,” Safavi added.

“That said, I think now is a day of reckoning for the international community. As you know very well, for 40 years Western countries, the US included, has appeased this regime with the false narrative that by offering political and economic concessions they can strengthen the so-called moderates, the illusory moderates within this regime. Now, that game is over.

“So, the world community, Western democracies have to ask themselves a simple question. Are they willing to deal with a regime whose president has done nothing but executions in the past 41 years?”

Safavi described the situation for the Iranian population as dire.

“Iran is a horrible place to live. The economy is bankrupt. About 70 to 80 percent of Iranians live below the poverty line. There is the army of the hungry,” he said, noting some are resorting to extreme measures including selling body parts to help their families survive.

Safavi said that more than 300,000 Iranians had died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the largest per capita death rate in the world, although the regime claims only 80,000 had died.

“On the positive sides, Iranians are determined as never before to bring down this regime. Case in point, you saw the nationwide uprising in December 2017. You saw the uprising in January 2018. And then there was the nationwide uprising in November 2019 in which people rose up in 200 cities and the regime was able to overcome it only by murdering 1,500 protesters in cold blood,” Safavi added.

“But it has been unable to stop the growth and rise of opposition to this regime. And that is precisely why Khamenei had no choice other than to close ranks. He knows an uprising is simmering under the ashes waiting to erupt at any given time.”

Host of Arab News’ “Frankly Speaking” talk show, Frank Kane, also joined “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” to provide insight into his show’s mission and goals, reviewing past broadcasts from the first season and also talking about his latest episode with guest Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran.

The second season of the flagship interview program “Frankly Speaking” launched on Sunday, May 30.

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“The Ray Hanania Radio Show” is sponsored by Arab News and broadcast on the US Arab Radio Network in Detroit on WNZK AM 690 radio and in Washington, D.C. on WDMV AM 700 radio. It is streamed live online at ArabRadio.us and on Facebook.com/ArabNews.


Trump freezes US-funded media outlets including Voice of America

Updated 16 March 2025
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Trump freezes US-funded media outlets including Voice of America

  • VOA director Michael Abramowitz said he was among 1,300 staffers placed on leave Saturday

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday put journalists at Voice of America and other US-funded broadcasters on leave, abruptly freezing decades-old outlets long seen as critical to countering Russian and Chinese information offensives.
Hundreds of staffers at VOA, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other outlets received a weekend email saying they will be barred from their offices and should surrender press passes and office-issued equipment.
Trump, who has already eviscerated the US global aid agency and the Education Department, on Friday issued an executive order listing the US Agency for Global Media as among “elements of the federal bureaucracy that the president has determined are unnecessary.”
Kari Lake, a firebrand Trump supporter put in charge of the media agency after she lost a US Senate bid, said in an email to the outlets that federal grant money “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”
The White House said the cuts would ensure “taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda,” marking a dramatic tone shift toward the networks established to extend US influence overseas.
White House press official Harrison Fields wrote “goodbye” on X in 20 languages, a jab at the outlets’ multilingual coverage.
VOA director Michael Abramowitz said he was among 1,300 staffers placed on leave Saturday.
“VOA needs thoughtful reform, and we have made progress in that regard. But today’s action will leave Voice of America unable to carry out its vital mission,” he said on Facebook, noting that its coverage — in 48 languages — reaches 360 million people each week.
The head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which started broadcasting into the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, called the cancelation of funding “a massive gift to America’s enemies.”
“The Iranian ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years,” its president, Stephen Capus, said in a statement.

US-funded media have reoriented themselves since the end of the Cold War, dropping much of the programming geared toward newly democratic Central and Eastern European countries and focusing on Russia and China.
Chinese state-funded media have expanded their reach sharply over the past decade, including by offering free services to outlets in the developing world that would otherwise pay for Western news agencies.
Radio Free Asia, established in 1996, sees its mission as providing uncensored reporting into countries without free media including China, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam.
The outlets have an editorial firewall, with a stated guarantee of independence despite government funding.
The policy has angered some around Trump, who has long railed against media and suggested that government-funded outlets should promote his policies.
The move to end US-funded media is likely to meet challenges, much like Trump’s other sweeping cuts. Congress, not the president, has the constitutional power of the purse and Radio Free Asia in particular has enjoyed bipartisan support in the past.

Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders condemned the decision, saying it “threatens press freedom worldwide and negates 80 years of American history in supporting the free flow of information.”
Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and senior Democratic congresswoman Lois Frankel said in a joint statement that Trump’s move would “cause lasting damage to US efforts to counter propaganda around the world.”
One VOA employee, who requested anonymity, described Saturday’s message as another “perfect example of the chaos and unprepared nature of the process,” with VOA staffers presuming that scheduled programming is off but not told so directly.
A Radio Free Asia employee said: “It’s not just about losing your income. We have staff and contractors who fear for their safety. We have reporters who work under the radar in authoritarian countries in Asia. We have staff in the US who fear deportation if their work visa is no longer valid.”
“Wiping us out with the strike of a pen is just terrible.”
 


Miami Beach mayor threatens cinema closure over screening of Oscar-winning film ‘No Other Land’

Updated 14 March 2025
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Miami Beach mayor threatens cinema closure over screening of Oscar-winning film ‘No Other Land’

  • Documentary is propaganda, attack on Jews, says Steven Meiner
  • Cinema’s CEO Vivian Marthell stands by decision to screen film

LONDON: The mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, has threatened to shutter a cinema that screened “No Other Land,” the Oscar-winning film that tells the story of Palestinian displacement in the West Bank.

Steven Meiner has proposed terminating O Cinema’s lease and withdrawing $40,000 in promised grant funding, following a series of requests to cancel the documentary screening.

Meiner’s proposal to terminate the cinema’s lease is scheduled for a city commission vote next Wednesday.

Critics of the film claim it unfairly criticizes Israeli and German officials and contains antisemitic content.

“The City of Miami Beach has one of the highest concentrations of Jewish residents in the United States,” Meiner said in a newsletter sent to residents on Tuesday.

He described the documentary as “a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.”

Meiner also claimed that O Cinema’s CEO, Vivian Marthell, initially agreed to cancel the screening but later reversed her decision and added additional dates after the film sold out.

Marthell said she stood by her decision.

“We understand the power of cinema to tell stories that matter, and we recognize that some stories — especially those rooted in real-world conflicts — can evoke strong feelings and passionate reactions. As they should.

“Our decision to screen ‘No Other Land’ is not a declaration of political alignment. It is, however, a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard.”

The production, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature this month, was filmed between 2019 and 2023 by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers.

It follows the destruction of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank by Israeli military forces and chronicles the unlikely friendship between Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, who co-directed the film.

Abraham said in a statement: “When the mayor uses the word antisemitism to silence Palestinians and Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid together, fighting for justice and equality, he is emptying it out of meaning.

“I find that to be very dangerous.”

While the film has received critical acclaim, it has also sparked controversy, highlighting ongoing tensions over free speech and Palestinian activism both in the US and internationally.

“Freedom of expression is an important value, but defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art,” Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar said in a social media post after the Oscars.

Despite its success, “No Other Land” has struggled to secure US distribution, with the filmmakers self-releasing the film through mTuckman Media.

The directors — particularly Abraham and Adra — have blamed political backlash fears as the reason for US distributors’ reluctance to acquire the rights.

The controversy comes amid heightened tensions over Palestinian activism in the US.

Earlier this week, Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student activist and green-card holder who led the Palestinian solidarity movement during campus protests last year, was detained by immigration authorities.

President Donald Trump has alleged, without evidence, that Khalil has links to “pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity.”

The incident has sparked an international outcry, with rights groups and media condemning Khalil’s detention as “a dangerous moment” and “a flagrant assault on free speech” that violates the First Amendment.

 


Trump adviser seeks to cut AFP, other news agency contracts

Updated 14 March 2025
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Trump adviser seeks to cut AFP, other news agency contracts

  • “We should not be paying outside news companies to tell us what the news is,” Kari Lake said on X

WASHINGTON: A senior adviser to President Donald Trump said Thursday she was moving to cancel long-established contracts between three international news agencies and the federal body that oversees US government-funded news organizations.
In a post on X announcing the move to cut the contracts with Agence France-Presse (AFP), Reuters and The Associated Press, former journalist-turned-politician and staunch Trump loyalist Kari Lake said: “We should not be paying outside news companies to tell us what the news is.”

Lake joined the US Agency for Global Media as a special adviser last month. The agency oversees a handful of media entities dedicated to reporting news and combatting censorship abroad, such as the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia.
“I moved today to cancel expensive and unnecessary newswire contracts for US Agency for Global Media, including tens of millions of dollars in contracts with The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse,” Lake said
“We should be producing news ourselves. And if that’s not possible, the American taxpayer should know why,” she added.
AFP has a number of long-running contracts to provide text, photo and video services to USAGM outlets.
Trump has made the federal-funded agencies overseen by the USAGM a particular target of his media reforms, and close adviser Elon Musk has called for VOA and Radio Free Europe to be shut down entirely for “torching” taxpayer money.
He tapped Lake in December to become the head of VOA, but she has yet to be confirmed.

 


LIV Golf signs multi-year broadcast deal with DAZN

Updated 14 March 2025
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LIV Golf signs multi-year broadcast deal with DAZN

  • Deal with streaming site DAZN will bring its golf events to more than 200 countries
  • LIV has also already agreed a deal with Fox Sports to show its 2025 season in the US

LONDON: LIV Golf announced on Friday it had secured a multi-year exclusive broadcast deal with streaming site DAZN to show its events outside the United States.
The Saudi-backed breakaway circuit had initially struggled for TV deals during its inaugural season in 2022, briefly showing tournaments for free on YouTube.
But LIV had also already agreed a deal with Fox Sports to show its 2025 season in the US.
DAZN will broadcast the LIV tour live in “more than 200 markets,” including Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan.
“DAZN’s cutting-edge technology and unparalleled scale give LIV Golf a significant platform to engage a truly global audience,” said LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil.
British streaming service DAZN was also recently awarded the exclusive global rights for FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup to be held in the US in June and July.
LIV Golf has been in talks with the PGA Tour over a possible deal to reunite the game since 2023.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said earlier this week that US President Donald Trump’s intervention in negotiations had “significantly bolstered” hopes of an agreement, but admitted some hurdles remain.


Turkiye’s independent news websites face closure risk after Google changes

Updated 13 March 2025
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Turkiye’s independent news websites face closure risk after Google changes

  • Google implemented algorithm changes that led to reduction in reader traffic, outlets say
  • Spokesperson for the tech giant argues that the changes do not target individual websites and that they are designed to improve its search facility overall

ISTANBUL: Several independent media outlets in Turkiye face a potential risk of closure after algorithm changes made by Google led to a significant reduction in reader traffic, a joint statement from the outlets said on Thursday.
They said Google’s algorithm changes since the end of January had wiped out the vast majority of reader traffic to their websites, previously directed through Google’s “Discover” and “News” tools, and had harmed their finances.
Independent news websites including T24, Medyascope, Diken, and Birgun said that Google’s changes also blocked the public’s access to news, adding that they would take legal action.
“As independent media organizations operating in Turkiye, we announce that we will stand up for our corporate rights, our employees’ work and the support of our readers, which have been stolen by Google’s actions, on every platform,” they said.
They said they would apply to local and international legal bodies, notably Turkiye’s Competition Authority.
A Google spokesperson, requesting anonymity, said its changes do not target individual websites and that they are designed to improve its search facility overall.
“We don’t and would never manipulate search results, modify our products, or enforce our policies to promote or disadvantage any particular viewpoint,” the spokesperson said.
In 2024, Turkiye ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the press freedom index of the free speech advocacy group Reporters Without Borders. Its report said that with some 90 percent of Turkiye’s media under government influence, Turks recently turned to critical or independent media outlets for domestic news.
Independent media outlets in Turkiye are highly dependent on Google revenues as private companies are reluctant to advertise on independent websites.
On Wednesday, independent news outlet Gazete Duvar announced its closure, citing revenue losses triggered by Google’s algorithm changes alongside inflationary economic conditions.