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Definition of diplomacy and public diplomacy
The topic of public diplomacy was invented and taught for the first time in 1965 A.D in America by Almond Gollion [1], the head of the Venture School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (Azizi Basati, 2011, p. 33). Since then, over time and with the ups and downs of the concept and the evolution of its meaning compared to today, it has gradually gained a suitable position among other restrictions of diplomacy. In the new world of information explosion and free flow of access to any and all types of information and knowledge, diplomacy plays a special role in these interactions. Especially in the general and public sense, Diplomacy is actually a part of the soft power of countries and is used for better and more effective communication and influence on the public opinion of other countries and at the same time for expanding its performance in foreign policy (Nazakati, 1396, p. 25). It is experienced that the successful implementation of countries’ diplomacy and its impact on international relations depend on the participation of people and public opinions in the field of foreign policy.
With the advancement of information and communication technology, public opinions have converged, and diplomacy which was previously an exclusive subject and the sole property of governments and the exclusive domain of managers, diplomats, and government decision-makers now includes all people on an extensive level. Thus, public diplomacy which is one of the types of diplomacy was considered important in the contemporary era and the beginning of the new era (expansion of Internet and social networks) with the increasing importance of noticing culture and partnership in sharing news and noticing and understanding its effects on the interaction between nations, governments and countries. It goes without saying that the change of public opinions and citizens will influence on the behavior and policy of the target government in the medium or long term with the help of public diplomacy tools such as the media, educational and cultural exchanges, publications and holding art exhibitions and etc. According to the mentioned bases, it can be said that a successful foreign policy cannot ignore the role of public diplomacy and new information and communication technologies and the understanding of new and active communication networks.
Meantime, the American government launched the VOA TV channel in Iran using the cultural elements of the deviant cult of Baha’ism, after the Islamic revolution in order to implement the role of public diplomacy in Iran. The description of the status of this channel is as follows:
Once, it was claimed that the number of viewers of the Voice of America was 10 million Iranians – it has also decreased confessed by Abbas Fakhravar from NITV Los Angeles and all of this is due to the Baha’is’ misuse of American taxpayers’ money, the support of American statesmen and the management of the Baha’is over this medium. In March 1942, US public radio began operations as National Public Radio (NPR), followed shortly thereafter by its international department as the Voice of America (VOA). The purpose of establishing this international department was to improve the image of America in the world and spread the freedom and democracy desired by America in other countries. In an article, Iran Network had previously analyzed the situation of Voice of America television affiliated with the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In that report, the authors analyzed the various aspects of the internal collapse of this anti-Iranian and monarchist media organization. The following report also examines the influence and dominance of the Baha’i cult in the pillars and body of this anti-Iranian television network. To recognize the purpose of establishing the VOA, it is necessary to look at its history. Since December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II paved the way for America’s entry into the war, the first sparks for the establishment of Voice America were fired. The voice of America was actually a tool to implement the policies of the US Department of State and also to influence the world’s public opinions towards the United States, which was followed through the language of the media. The VOA has 44 radio stations in different languages and 24 TV stations. Since its inception, this collection was founded and established aiming using and benefiting from the tools of public diplomacy which includes Asia, Europe and North Africa. National Public Radio (NPR) and Voice of America (VOA) are both a subsidiary of the US Government’s Foreign Media Board, or BBG and is administered under the supervision of this board – whose members consist of the Council of Foreign Relations and appointed representatives of the ministry of foreign affairs and the BBG is chaired by a vote of the U.S. Senate. The BBG also operates under the supervision of the U.S. Special Investigation Team which presents its reports to the U.S. Senate and the Department of State. The annual budget of the Voice of America during the years 88-89 was about 800 million dollars which is financed from the taxes of the American people.
The establishment of the Farsi department of the Voice of America was in April 1979, that is, immediately after the Islamic revolution in Iran. The Farsi department of the Voice of America radio was initially launched with the daily program for 30 minutes with the aim of guiding the Iranian revolution, and after failure, with the aim of confronting the Islamic revolution and challenging it. On November 22, 1979, Ahmad Reza Baharlu started his activity in this media. Along with Baharlu, other presenters such as Ramesh Rasekh, Behrouz Abbasi and Akbar Nazimi, who were employees of Radio Iran, started their works in the Farsi department of the Voice of America under Baharlu’s guidance. In his VOA history book, Alan Hight mentions the founding of Persian TV of the Voice of America as 1996. In this way, nearly two decades after Ahmad Reza Baharlu started working at the Voice of America and launched Persian Radio, he was also entrusted with the responsibility of launching the television of this collection. On October 18, 1996, the first waves of Farsi TV of the Voice of America were broadcasted to the whole world performed by Ahmad Reza Bharlo. Until years later, Bharlo himself was the producer and presenter of many analytical and political news programs of this television.
The Baha’is in the VOA
Although Ahmadreza Baharlu, the first head of the Persian Department of Voice of America was not a Baha’i himself, he had a great desire to be close to the Baha’is. This issue is especially evident in employing Farsi department employees and the selection of his Iranian colleagues among Baha’is. As mentioned before, his first colleagues in this department were Ramesh Rasakh, Behrouz Abbasi and Akbar Nazemi among them the first two were the prominent Iranian Baha’is in radio and television during the Pahlavi era in Iran. In the announcement of a group of employees of National Radio and Television of Iran on 17th of Bahman 1357 S.H., which was published in the Ettela’at newspaper, the names of these two people appear along with another group of Baha’i employees of this Pahlavi-era complex. When Kenneth Tom Linson started his job as the head of the BBG, Shila Ganji, a well-known Baha’i and a member of the Baha’i community in the United Nations started working as the head of VOA’s Farsi department in April 2004, in the absence of Ahmed Bharlou.
Kenneth Tom Linson, who is himself a member of AIPAC, or the Jewish Lobby Society in the United States, brings a group of the most famous Baha’is into the management cycle of Voice of America including Avi Davidi, Setareh Derakhshesh and Mehtab Farid were among the most important of them. In the meantime, Avi Davidi plays a very important and decisive role in the Baha’I making process of the Voice of America. In this way, with the entrance of Sheila Ganji into the management circle of Voice of America, the circle of Baha’i employees and managers in this Persian-language media is completed, and people such as Akbar Nazemi, Behrouz Abbasi, Arzhang Davudi, Ramesh Rasekh, Avi Davidi, Mehtab, Farid and Setara Derakhshesh are working with each other.
VOA is headed by James Glassman (a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute), the new chairman of the US Foreign Media Association. He who has taken over the management of this collection since 2007, has had a very close relationship with the Baha’i communities of the United States and Haifa in Israel since accepting this responsibility.
The witness of this claim is his close relationship with Behrouz Behbodi, the director and founder of the Iran Democratic Council and of well-known Baha’is. Earlier Sep. 2008, he traveled to Israel to pass BBG budget and visited Behrouz Behboodi in Haifa office. Since then, the process of employing Baha’is in the Persian TV VOA has increased compared to the past.
Baha’is’ splurges in spending the budget
Sheila Ganji’s dismissal was due to both offending Bush, the President of the United States at the time, and due to the many splurges that were made by this Baha’i and his gang.
Since the beginning of his work at the Voice of America, he had called and employed a circle of his Baha’i friends and relatives from the Baha’i radio and television media in Haifa, Israel, to the United States, so that the reports received by the investigation committee Senate forced them to conduct serious research in this field.
Usually, someone who has strong political security support and influence on the American government will squander American funds and American taxpayers without any worries. Also, the results of the Senate’s investigations into the misuse of the media by the Baha’is were never reported, and no media covered it.
This shows that the Baha’is, like the Zionists in America, also have a high influence on the mass media.
References:
۱- Rafi, Nik Ravesh, M. (1392). Public diplomacy and soft power, Scientific Quarterly of International Relations Studies, 6(22), 99-133.
۲- Azizi Basasi, M. (1391). US General Diplomacy in the Middle East (Volume 1), Tehran: Imam Sadegh University.
۳- Nazakati, F. (1396). The public diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Central Asia is mandatory for the Islamic Republic of Iran (Volume 1). Tehran: Ava Book.
۴- VOA Baha’i Media, Tehran. Islamic Republic News Agency, Dey 29, 1388 S.H.
https://www.irna.ir/news/9326962/VOA
