Statements [Role of the radio and television network in the reformation or corruption of the country]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

The human being has been created in such a way that in relation to all the matters that are present externally; whatever is present externally, God has placed an opening in human beings that gets connected to him; the eyes to seeing; the ears to hearing; and likewise, the mind to the supernatural. A human being is a creature that has relationship with all the external creatures because of the power that God has given to him and the openings that He has placed for him so that he connects with the external environment. This creature can get connected and by means of these openings, attain virtues and occasionally through these same openings, can create corruption within a human being. These slips can occur by means of the eyes; by means of the ears and by means of the tongue. It is possible that a human being, by these means comprehend for himself, the virtues and things that are in the interest of the society and give back; and it is also possible for a human, because also of the deviations in him, to be the opposite.

These media that we now have whether publications, magazines, newspapers and whether cinema and theatre and so forth; and whether radio or television; among all of these, that which has a greater communication with the people is television from two angles: One, the publications, however large their circulation, are firstly not on a nationwide scale; and secondly, all individuals cannot make use of them because at present, half the population is illiterate such that they cannot make use of the publications and writings. The cinema can perform in a limited environment; the radio too is present everywhere and for everything, but only it can convey through hearing. But the thing that is used throughout the country meaning the villager who is sitting in his house on the frontier and is totally illiterate but has eyes and ears, he makes use of the radio and television broadcasts. He both sees as well as hears; in other words, the radio has only usage of hearing whereas the radio and television broadcasts put to use both hearing and sight so that the person can see both the plans and programs and also hear about it. Therefore the radio and television broadcasting is the most sensitive of the medium that are existing. The radio and television broadcasts can reform a country and it can lead it to corruption. This neither the newspaper nor the cinema nor the theatre nor verbal propaganda that happens on the pulpits can do; because the scope of all of them is limited. The range of the radio is like the television, but it only involves hearing. The television involves both the faculties of hearing and sight.

This means that if we have a proper radio and television broadcasting, the issue shall circulate throughout the country correctly and both the literate and the illiterate shall benefit from them. But if this radio and television broadcasting strays, it shall lead the population astray. Now, too, you can observe that the subject of radio and television broadcasting is something common; now it is something that is the level of the public.

All these media must be the tutors of this society. From the time they were established, it was for training. Suppose they were not made for training but they are tools of training. Newspapers and magazines must be teachers for those that read the newspapers. The cinema must be a teacher for those who go to the cinema; likewise the theatre; and above all are the radio and television broadcasting. They must be publicity organizations and be a constructive one by means of which the people of a country are made into pious and trustworthy individuals; and patriotic individuals.

Unfortunately, in the previous era, they tried to corrupt all of them. The publications were astray; the same with the cinema; the same with the radio. They made all to swerve of the path that must build up a country; that must build up a nation- and developed them in the opposite direction. In other words, the newspapers would write such things that were in the opposite direction of the nation. The radio would also broadcast such things that were opposite the direction of the interests of the nation; and likewise, the television.

Now that it is a free country and nobody can encroach upon the right of others, and you are free to engage in publicity; and all are free to publicize on the radio, on the television, and in the newspapers, you must think of transforming this organization into a builder of human beings; build human beings in consideration of the fact that they did not allow to build human beings in all of fifty years.

The Europeans and the Americans are afraid of human beings; that there should be a human being in a country; because the moment there is a human being in a country they thwart him; they tried not to let our manpower to develop. They engaged in propaganda by every means that they could both from abroad and from inside the country. They corrupted our newspapers; they built centers of corruption; they converted centers that were designed for learning into centers opposed to learning such as the cinema. The cinema in those days- I do not know how they are now- were converted into a thing that when a youth would go there for ten days, twenty days or one month, he would come out a corrupt youth. Perhaps you have heard and seen the centers of corruption. They built centers of corruption throughout the country and especially in Tehran. It was said that there were more liquor stores than bookshops in Tehran; and everywhere they wanted to ensure that these Eastern countries and especially those places where they had oil interests did not have human development. For this purpose, they employed those media that could do this job for them as their agents. They kept agents to ensure that they did quite the opposite. All our and your tragedies is that we did not have the persons who could do the job; and if at all there were, they were suppressed; they were imprisoned; they were exiled. Those who were their supporters were employed in offices and as heads- especially the medium that should have been influential.

Today that the country is in your own hands and its destinies are in your hands, every person in every place that he is in, must contribute in the reconstruction and transformation. By transformation, we mean that during the taghouti regime, the radio and television broadcasting would undertake taghouti tasks. Half of its time was spent weakening our youth by means of music. Music weakens the soul of human beings. Music causes a person to lose his independence of thought. Half the job of radio and television broadcasting concerned the subject of music or showing scenes that would corrupt our youth. When the youth would go out to the cinema, it would be in that fashion; when he would come home and switch on the television, he would see all that nonsense; when he would see the advertisements, it would be in that manner; what do you expect a country to become? If it becomes like this, then what would become of our youth? They become these same things that you saw destroy our country totally.

If you love Islam, love the country; love your people; this organization that is in your hand- not all the organizations can interfere all at once- every person in the position that he occupies must reform the organization in which he is serving; this means that he must not be Westernized or infatuate with the West such that between the news programs he should broadcast music; this is infatuation with the West. Make some other programs; something else. Increase the news reports; do something so that music is eliminated. Do not be under the impression that music is something for a progressive country. Music spoils the mind of our children; corrupts their brains. If a youth listens to music continuously, he can no longer attend to his job; he can no longer think seriously. I have repeatedly been telling to eliminate it; perhaps I have said it ten times or more until now to Mr. Qutbzadeh «1» to strike it out from the programs; he says it cannot be done. I do not know what this" cannot be done" means? Why it cannot be done? Listen to what I tell you. I say that if we do something that is in the interest of the nation and the Westerners and the Westernized come to criticize and say that these people are antiquated and old-fashioned, should we then forego it and follow them? Or no, we must consider our own interest. We must take note of the fact that this organization that must be the teacher of the population; that must be constructive should train human beings in such a way that they forget their future; they should think of sitting here and receiving these matters from the radio and television broadcasts so that after a few days they become corrupted internally and become bare. Here, gentlemen, the matters of radio and television broadcasts must be taken seriously and not as a joke! It is the subject of music which is worthless and not worth taking seriously. Your subjects must be serious subjects. You want to build a country. One who wants to build a country must concern himself with serious subjects and not worthless and ridiculous ones. If you show films, the films should be serious and constructive; they should not be immoral films that will spoil our youth- like in the former times- when they intentionally wanted to corrupt our youth. If you speak on a topic, it should be a constructive one. If, for instance, you need to play something, play a tune that does not weaken; that strengthens; not a music that corrupts our youth; and God knows it does corrupt!

You must make sure that you are serious in your work; meaning that the country must now reform its tasks in earnest. It is a country that was thrown into chaos and disarray and where they destroyed everything and fled. The debts that they have left behind in the banks cannot be cleared so soon. Each of them looted as much as they could and fled; and they took away with them whatever they could. In such a country, we must act with seriousness; not take it as a joke with these matters that were present then. Now, the situation is such that you must solve these matters. Do not be afraid if they call you old-fashioned! They said it to us for fifty years; let them say. This is what we are. Take matters seriously; do not listen to what the Europeans are saying; do not listen to what the West is saying; or how they are solving the problems in the West. We are Eastern; we have certain problems that are unique to us alone; certain things must be kept to ourselves.

We must have independence of thought. We must severe our intellectual link with the West. If we wish to live independently; if we wish to be independent; we should not have links with those places. We must seek independence of thought. Independence of thought implies that none of our things be related to them. All our things should be independent. Our thoughts should be independent. Our radio broadcasts should be independent. Our television broadcasts should be independent. Our cinema should be independent. They should be independent of Western subjects; we should live independently for ourselves. Do not be afraid of being labeled `old-fashioned'; do not be afraid of a journalist or a columnist- that I do not know what goes on in his mind- that unleashes criticism. Do not be afraid of criticism. These people shall criticize.

This is something that I wish to say which is that if you are interested in your country becoming independent, reform the place where you are; well. If you wish to do your job well, then this radio and television broadcasting must abstain from these things that weaken the heart of human beings; that weaken the intellect of human beings; that distance a human being from his humanity and that cause him to surrender his independence of thought. Topics that must be spoken on there, speeches that have to be given should be by those persons who do not wish to bring about the destruction of the country; those who do not want to push us backward in the name of being progressive individuals; in the name of" the great civilization"! That which they did to us is what they wanted to do. This is what I wished to say on this subject.

The other issue is- yesterday when the prime minister was here, the subject of radio and television network was put forward- that a council must be established in the Radio and Television Broadcasting and there is no other solution except this. A single person must not be in control so that he does as he wishes; there must be a council. One person I will appoint to this council; one person the prime minister shall appoint and two others are to be appointed by the broadcasting network itself. As there must be five members in the council, the fifth person we shall decide whether we or he shall appoint. These five persons should manage the radio and television network by method of consultation with each other. One vote must be assigned to the executive power who is the chief executive. The chief executive is the executive power. Yesterday, we discussed that if Mr. Qutbzadeh approves this plan one-hundred percent, Mr. Qutbzadeh should stay on; I am in favor of his remaining. But if he is not ready to accept this condition of working in a council, he should step down and be replaced by someone whom the council and also the government shall elect and approve. This job must be managed by a council under the supervision of an individual so that there is no dictatorship and pressurization involved- one cohesive group. If at one time you note that these five persons who have been appointed are five dictators, you bring the complaint here and say that they are behaving in an authoritarian manner, or they are mismanaging so that we reform them. This is a plan that we discussed yesterday with the prime minister and they also were present and they shall implement this plan.

(After hearing the statements of some among the audience, Imam Khomeini said this in reply.)

In any case, it is from now on. But you should neither be afraid of the Imam's office nor of me. You should never think that we are trying to impose our will. It is our duty to mention what is expedient; let them say what they want to say. Whenever they say that we will call the Imam's office tell them to go and call, go and tell him in person. «2»

Yesterday, when the gentlemen were here, it was decided that a five-member council be established and each member should not have more than one vote; be he the director or the rest- each has a single vote. The majority of them were of the opinion that the executive should be the managing director. The executive is the one who is the director. If that executive acts contrary to what his duties are, he must step down. If in the same manner that was decided upon and I told Mr. Bazargan- the prime minister- to summon Mr. Qutbzadeh and tell him that this is the issue; and if he is ready to remain the managing director and chief executive and work in a council; and that there should be a council and every member of the council should have a single vote and that he too shall have a single vote and the others also a single vote each and he should not interfere excessively in the executive work; if he is willing, he can stay. If he is not ready, then appoint someone else. The decisions of the council must be paramount in this regard. If it is otherwise, then whoever is opposed must step down. It is up to them. These positions must be occupied by persons who are trustworthy and reliable. If afterward- yes, we will determine, or announce [it] «3»- if afterward, they commit breaches, and it is proven that they committed a breach, even if they commit a single mistake, we shall remove them. A lot has been spoken against him. I do not know «4»- this is how it is going to be from now. If it is realized by this means, well and good; otherwise all must cooperate. Now is the time when you want to draft the constitution, to elect your consultative assembly; to elect your president, which are the fundamental issues. At this point of time, we must all cooperate with each other. If there is a shortcoming, get along with it a little. Now is not the time to create disorder. Now is not the time for this; God willing, after an elected government has been installed; after you have a national consultative assembly in place; all of them shall be resolved. May God protect all of you, and may you all succeed, God willing.