Minister of Justice Should Study Law

Zarghani’s Response to Elham:

A day after the spokesperson for the Iranian government, who is also the country’s ‎minister of justice publicly criticized the work of Iran’s state-run national radio and ‎television network, Zarghami, the head of the network responded by reminding the ‎spokesperson that the president had repeatedly called on the members of the cabinet not ‎to engage in public verbal criticism of each other, and ridiculed the minister by advising ‎him to study the laws of the country.‎

Zarghami said, “Among the government’s orders, which are repeatedly emphasized by ‎the president, is one that calls on cabinet members not to speech against each other and ‎therefore one would expect the spokesperson of the administration to respect this more ‎than others.” Having said that, he continued with an advice to the minister by saying, ‎‎“The trust of the public and their satisfaction are the most important principles for the ‎managers and art professionals of the national media which is itself enforced by the ‎supervision of the public. Furthermore, the principles of supervision over the national ‎radio and television are defined in detail in the laws of the country whose study I advise.”‎

This response came after administration spokesperson Gholam Hossein Elham went to ‎ISNA student news agency and made harshly criticized the radio and TV organization on ‎the fourth day of a week that has been celebrated as the week of the government.‎

When speaking about the radio and TV organization, Elham said, “There is no sense of ‎responsibility at the radio and television network.”‎

The spokesperson further raised this question: “Where is the supervision over the radio ‎and television network? I state that there is no supervision over the radio and television ‎network. Some believe that this institution is under the control of the supreme leader, ‎whereas the leader merely appoints the head of the organization as is required by the ‎constitution. It is not true that just because the leader has made an appointment, he is also ‎personally responsible for everything that goes on there.”‎

It should be noted that according to the constitution, the national radio and television ‎organization of the country is under the supervision of a council called the supervisory ‎council which includes representatives from each of the three branches of government. ‎‎“Currently there is a supervisory council over the radio and television organization which ‎in reality is ineffective and dysfunctional. This is so while the constitution views this ‎organization to belong to the branches of the state from the perspective of media ‎provision, but we see that this powerful institution lacks supervision. In fact this is the ‎only institution without any supervision, i.e. neither the Majlis nor the government ‎supervises its activities while it is not accountable to the leader either,” Elham said. He ‎concluded his criticism by saying that radio and television had to be accountable to the ‎three branches of the state.‎