Dr. Kazemzadeh-Thanking Ms. Ashleigh Banfield for Excellent Reporting from Iran
 

From: Masoud Kazemzadeh
Date:  Wed Feb 13, 2002  11:12 pm
Subject:  Thanking Ms. Ashleigh Banfield for excellent reporting from Iran

Hammihanan gerami azadi-khah va havadar-e democracy,

Ba dorood,

On MSNBC tonight, February 13, Ms. Ashleigh Banfield reporting from Iran
asked excellent questions from Iranians and accurately reported their views.
BRAVE Iranian men and women risked their lives and explicitly said that
"there is no freedom of expression in Iran," "they do not like the
fundamentalist dictatorship," and they do not like the regime's slogan "death
to America." Repeatedly, Ms. Banfiled mentioned that there is a huge gap
between the government of Iran, and the people of Iran. This is the BEST and
most accurate reporting from Iran I have ever seen. In order to maintain
their access to Iran, most journalists are afraid to report their findings in
such an honest manner. Most other reporters rather hide the truth and
maintain their access to a country ruled by a dictatorial government than
tell the truth as they see it.

Our brave men and women risked their lives to tell the truth so that the
outside world would know about the repression and dictatorship in our
homeland. The least we can do is to thank the decent journalist that is
relaying the Iranian voices of freedom and democracy. Please send a short
note of thanks to Ms. Ashleigh Banfield's supervisor at MSNBC. Ms. Banfield
has stood up for us and the truth, we should thank her for her honesty.

The e-mail address of the producer of MSNBC's "Region in Conflict" is:

Region@msnbc.com


Ba sepaas-e faravan,
Masoud Kazemzadeh, Ph.D.


===============================================



Dear MSNBC producer,

I am of Iranian heritage and support establishment of democracy in Iran. I
would like to express my utmost appreciations to Ms. Ashleigh Banfield for
her EXCELLENT reporting from Iran. She accurately reflected the views of the
overwhelming majority of the Iranian people who struggle against the
fundamentalist dictatorship in Iran.

In fact, the fundamentalist few do oppress the aspirations of us the
pro-democracy majority in Iran. There is no freedom of speech in Iran, and
those brave Iranians who said this truth to Ms. Banfield risked their
liberties and life to relay this to her and to the outside world. There are
NO free elections in Iran: ONLY members of the fundamentalist elites are
allowed to run. The majority of us want to see the fundamentalist
dictatorship replaced with a secular democratic republic.

Please relay the regards of the pro-democracy Iranians to Ms. Banfield for
her excellent reporting.

Sincerely yours,
Masoud Kazemzadeh, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Political Science
UVSC

Kazemzma@uvsc.edu