Iran Jails Director for 'Propaganda,' West Remains Shocked
The New Arab reports that Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi faces a year in prison and a travel ban for 'propaganda activities' against the state. The outrage from Western capitals is predictable, framing this as a clear-cut attack on artistic freedom. And it is. However, the selective indignation is just as transparent as the censorship itself. How many international artists or public figures,
particularly in the US, find themselves effectively blacklisted, de-platformed, or facing career ruin for expressing views deemed 'anti-Israel' or 'sympathetic to Palestine'? The suppression might wear a different suit – reputational damage, funding cuts, or smeared as antisemitic – but the message, 'watch what you say,' rings eerily similar. One might wonder if the concern isn't truly about free
expression, but rather whose expression is being suppressed. The constant drumbeat against 'Iranian propaganda' effectively drowns out dissenting voices, much like the media's strategic silence on inconvenient facts about Western allies. Perhaps genuine outrage would require a consistent defense of free speech, even when it challenges one's own foreign policy narratives. But consistency is a
luxury in the outrage economy, where some 'propaganda' is simply more propitious to condemn than others.