Iran's media watchdog banned a popular football commentator’s live program mid-stream, the CEO of Iran's top video-sharing platform Aparat said, in an apparent attempt to muzzle a figure known for outspoken political criticism.
Mohammad-Javad Shakouri tweeted the audio file of a phone call from the monitoring department of SATRA, the media regulatory authority, which informed him that the platform needed to urgently drop Adel Ferdosipour’s reporting of a UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
Aparat is a video-sharing platform similar to YouTube.
“Streaming the matches commentated by Adel Ferdosipour is against streaming regulations. Please remove the match being streamed now as soon as possible,” the man heard in the audio file who did not introduce himself said.
Ferdosipour produced and hosted Navad (90), a popular weekly live football show, for Channel 3 of the state television (IRIB) for nearly two decades. The program was among the state television’s most viewed shows and its audience sometimes topped 30 million.
Channel 3 dismissed Ferdosipour from the program in March 2019 for his occasional criticism of the government meddling in football clubs, including in the appointment of their managers and challenging the channel’s director, but he continued to produce another program, Football 120, for the Sports Channel of state television.
In December 2020, a year after Navad was dropped, over two million Iranians followed the Persian-language Instagram account of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 48 hours when it was announced that Ferdosipour would be commentating on the Champions Asian League final live on AFC’s Instagram page.
In 2022, Ferdosipour rejected state television’s offer to do the commentaries on FIFA World Cup in solidarity with the Woman, Life, Freedom protesters and “bereaved Iranians," after hundreds of protesters were killed by security forces. He has since completely cut all ties with the state broadcaster.
He currently produces and presents a podcast, Football 360. The podcast can be watched on Aparat, as well as through the Football 360 mobile application.
In his post, Shakouri who is also the co-founder and chief executive officer of Filimo, a subscription video-on-demand platform similar to Netflix, threatened to “tweet every bizarre demand or bullying action of SATRA and the IRIB.”
Aparat and Filimo, like all other video-sharing and subscription video-on-demand platforms, are regulated by SATRA which can censor all online audiovisual media platforms. The organization has the exclusive right of media licensing.
Netflix, YouTube, all major social media networks, and messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Viber are blocked in Iran. These platforms can only be accessed through anti-filtering software.
SATRA is affiliated to the IRIB. It was formed in 2016 to ensure that non-state online platforms do not infringe on the IRIB's broadcasting monopoly.
The public relations office of SATRA told the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) linked Tasnim news agency on Thursday that the program was banned because the IRIB has exclusive right to licensing and monitoring of all “live” online programs and Aparat had failed to acquire a license for the program.
On Wednesday SATRA also banned “Now”, a talk show hosted by the award-winning film director, writer, and actor Soroush Sehat after the release of only one episode. The explanation offered by SATRA, according to the CEO of Aparat, was that the host of the show had mentioned “Open Book”, a popular book review show he had hosted on IRIB during the program.
The IRIB, a rival of the online platforms, considers a mention of its own programs as infringement of its property rights because it is also the “referee and regulator”, the CEO of Aparat and Filimo wrote in another tweet about the ban of the talk show.