Info:
Sayyid Ezzatollah Zarghami is Iranian conservative politician and current minister of Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism. He is a former military officer. Zarghami was Deputy of Minister in Culture and Islamic Ministry as well as Defence Ministry before holding office as the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting from 2004 to 2014;
While Zarghami has held top positions in the regime, he is widely known for his role as the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), a post that he held for ten years. The regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, appointed Zarghami as the head of the IRIB in 2004.
During his tenure in IRIB, Zarghami played a key role in suppressing freedom of speech and limited people’s access to free information. The IRIB, headed by Zarghami, violated the right to freedom of expression of many detainees, journalists, and political activists during the 2009 protests by broadcasting their forced confessions and paved the way for their execution or public disgrace.
When Zarghami was appointed as the regime’s new Minister of Culture and Tourism, he underlined that the “Islamic Republic welcomes tourists with open arms.” The Western tourists and diplomats perhaps should think twice before rushing to Zarghami’s “open arms” due to his role in oppressing people. Right now, more than a dozen dual citizens or foreign nationals who have come to Iran for studies or family visits have been stranded in Iranian jails with no hope of release in sight.
Zarghami is close to Khamenei and part of the so-called “young and Hezbollahi government” that Khamenei described. Along with other hand-picked criminals in the cabinet of Ebrahim Raisi (aka the hanging judge), Zarghami has one task, and that is oppressing Iranians and covering up the regime’s crimes.
Zarghami and the IRIB have long tried to tarnish the reality by parroting the regime’s talking points, airing forced confessions, and spreading hatred. Neda Agha-Soltan’s death, with her open eyes, shocked the whole world in 2009. The late Senator John McCain repeated what many people said when Neda died: “Shame on us that Neda died with open eyes, and we live with closed eyes.”
The IRIB, then headed by Zarghami, used all possible momentum to discriminate against ethnic and religious minorities. Protests erupted in Lorestan and Chaharmahal, and Bakhtiari Province after the IRIB mocked Lurs the Lor ethnic group in a TV series called “the ancient land.” In September 2013, two of the state-TV hosts insulted the people of Shiraz province, causing more protests.
The IRIB, the exclusive propaganda arm of the clerical regime, has an important role in propagating, promoting, and disseminating the regime’s medieval ideology and interpretation of Islam.
In December 2012, Jonathan Batuklia, then a member of the Assyrian community in the regime’s parliament, criticized the IRIB for what it called “broadcasting offensive programs against the country’s religious minorities.”
A report published by the Baha’i International Community in October 2012 underlined the role of the IRIB, its English-language news network, and Press TV in promoting anti-Baha’ism. According to the report, from 2007 to 2011, the news network produced and broadcasted documentaries against Baha’ism and promoted anti-Baha’ism. It should be noted that Zarghami was the head of IRIB throughout these years.
The IRIB also has a long history of rehashing the regime’s misogynous views, and Zarghami, who presided over this body for a decade, is responsible for all these atrocities.
Positions:
Member of the Followers of Imam’s Line – U.S. Embassy hostage-taker
Anchor of IRGC Radio Program (1982 – 1986)
Member of the IRIB Supervisory Council (1992 – 1997)
Member of the IRNA Supreme Council of policymaking (1992 – 1997)
Deputy of Parliamentary Affairs to the Ministry of Defense (1997 – 2000)
Deputy of IRIB Parliamentary and Provincial Affairs (2000 – 2006)
Head of the State Broadcasting (IRIB) (2004 – 2014)
Planning and Programming Deputy of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution
Member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (2014 – present)
Minister of Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism (2021-present)
Military service:
Branch/service: Revolutionary Committees – Revolutionary Guards
Years of service: 1982–1995; 1997–2004
Rank: 2nd Brigadier general
Battles/wars: Iran–Iraq War
Also Known As:
Seyyed Ezatollah Zarghami
Born:
26 February 1959
Country:
Iran
Nationality:
Iranian
Reason for the color:
» Zarghami, among other 16 Iranian Officials, was sanctioned by the European Union on 23 March 2012 “for committing human rights abuses.”;
» As per Executive Order 13628, Zarghami was sanctioned by the US under the category “Entities Designated as Human Rights Abusers or Limiting Free Expression” in February 2013;