US TV stirs up Iran’s young rebels
The United States will beam a Farsi-language television news program into Iran tonight, the latest in the propaganda war to create discontent among an alienated younger generation.
US officials say News and Views will air nightly for a half-hour via satellite to provide an alternative to the country’s state television, which answers to the all-powerful Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The hard-line clerical leadership will see the project as further evidence that recent unrest has been orchestrated from Washington.
Student leaders and democracy activists say recent statements of support from President Bush and Tony Blair are counter-productive, providing ammunition to their opponents, who say that Iran has come under psychological attack by the Bush administration.
Clerics are contemptuous of satellite broadcasts from stations run by Iranian exiles in Los Angeles, which run low-budget pop music videos and crude denunciations of the theocracy from sympathizers of the former monarchy.
(Observer (UK))

FCC issues new media ownership rules
The Federal Communications Commission on Wed. issued controversial new rules that would allow media companies to grow larger, regulations that probably will go into effect in August but could be challenged in court.
The rules — allowing television networks to buy more local television stations and permit a company to own a newspaper, television station, and several radio outlets in a market — will go into effect 30 days after being published in the Federal Register, which can take up to three weeks.
Under the new rules, a television network will be able to own local television stations that collectively reach up to 45 percent of the US television audience, up from 35 percent.
Also under the new rules, companies will be allowed to own up to three television stations in the largest markets and two stations in all but the smallest markets. But no entity can own more than one of the top four rated stations in a market.
“There will be judicial appeals,” said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of a public interest law firm, Media Access Project. He also noted that litigation could be held up while the FCC considers likely requests for clarification or reconsideration of the new rules. (Reuters)