Iran’s state-run media are violating the censorship policy on a daily basis in order to acknowledge that the political and economic situation is critical and that the Iranian people’s (legitimate) anger may soon spill over into an uprising that overthrows the establishment.
The Hamdeli daily wrote on Sunday that the government is making no effort to address the demands of the people and in fact “deliberately blocking the way of answering these demands”. The article explained that the 2018 and 2019 protests sprung up because the majority of the people didn’t trust any faction of the ruling system, but that authorities have done nothing to increase trust.
They wrote: “This level of mistrust is a dangerous indicator.”
While the Jahan-e Sanat daily predicted further protests and said that the economic crisis was the result of the state’s dire policies, advising that the people no longer trust the Islamic Republic because of “biased and political” decisions.
On Saturday, the Mostaghel daily wrote that the state’s ongoing oppression, which caused the death by suicide of a detained protester’s father, is causing anger.
It wrote: “Learning from other countries’ experience could be helpful. [In those countries] they recognize their opponents’ right to life and then freedom of expression. Perhaps, the rulers may think that rejecting any voice of dissent is not a threat to them in power.”
While the Hamdeli daily wrote that the government should have listened to health officials over the coronavirus in order to avoid the type of mismanagement that causes 116,000 deaths by reopening the country before it is ready.
President Hassan Rouhani’s claims that Iran’s economy has done better than Germany was also torn apart by the state-run media.
The Aftab-e Yazd daily wrote that there is a “galactic distance in economic matters” between the two countries and in no way is Iran’s economy better, saying that even children laugh at Rouhani’s claim. While the Hamdeli daily compared Iran’s economic situation to the Iran-Iraq war, dismissing the idea that the problems are caused by sanctions rather than incorrect policies.
The Setar-e Sobh daily continued with this argument, writing: “Some people have always benefited from the country’s economic crisis and do not want to solve problems. The country’s current poor economic situation is not the result of the actions of one government and one person, but 40 years of wrong policies and ill-considered decisions have put the country in an economic crisis.”
