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Revolutionary word beamed into Iran from Hollywood
North Hollywood, California, June 19: Half a world from the protests rocking the Iranian regime, a new weapon is being aimed at the ruling Ayatollahs from a warehouse in a run-down part of Hollywood.
North Hollywood, California, June 19: Half a world from the protests rocking the Iranian regime, a new weapon is being aimed at the ruling Ayatollahs from a warehouse in a
run-down part of Hollywood.
As Tehran was gripped by an eighth straight night of
tense anti-government protests and clashes late yesterday, a
team of Persian exiles toiled in a Los Angeles television
studio to encourage revolution against Iran's leaders.
"I want to change things from the inside now (to avoid) Iran being attacked by another country," said former rock star Zia Atabay, who runs Iranian National Television (NITV), a California-based satellite broadcaster.
Since the protests first erupted at Tehran University and spread to other cities, NITV has devoted most of its 24-hour Farsi-language programming to beaming news and political talk shows into Iran's heartland.
Atabay, who has about 33 staff, said protesters were using NITV to help coordinate their efforts by exchanging information on his live phone-in shows that offer an alternative to Iran's strictly-controlled state media.
The station's 16 telephone lines are jammed with up to 60 calls an hour from viewers, mostly in Iran.
Atabay -- who launched NITV as a youth entertainment channel for the Farsi-speaking diaspora after a making a fortune from a plastic surgery business that still finances the operation -- is blunt about his views.
"I tell (the Iranian people) that the regime is over," he said, predicting that with international support for the demonstrators and a western economic blockade, the government could fall within months.
Bureau Report
"I want to change things from the inside now (to avoid) Iran being attacked by another country," said former rock star Zia Atabay, who runs Iranian National Television (NITV), a California-based satellite broadcaster.
Since the protests first erupted at Tehran University and spread to other cities, NITV has devoted most of its 24-hour Farsi-language programming to beaming news and political talk shows into Iran's heartland.
Atabay, who has about 33 staff, said protesters were using NITV to help coordinate their efforts by exchanging information on his live phone-in shows that offer an alternative to Iran's strictly-controlled state media.
The station's 16 telephone lines are jammed with up to 60 calls an hour from viewers, mostly in Iran.
Atabay -- who launched NITV as a youth entertainment channel for the Farsi-speaking diaspora after a making a fortune from a plastic surgery business that still finances the operation -- is blunt about his views.
"I tell (the Iranian people) that the regime is over," he said, predicting that with international support for the demonstrators and a western economic blockade, the government could fall within months.
Bureau Report