Iranian Media Low Key in Reporting on Killer Quake

Iranian news media reacted with little emotion Thursday to a killer earthquake that left an estimated 25,000 people dead in northern Iran.

The country has endured several massive tragedies in recent years. An estimated 1 million Iranians were killed or wounded in the eight-year war with Iraq that ended in 1988. And the Islamic revolution that in 1979 toppled the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

And devastating quakes are not new to the country. About 25,000 people died in eastern Iran in a 1978 earthquake. Roughly the same number died in a December, 1988, quake in nearby Soviet Armenia.

The Iranian media, monitored from Nicosia, was quick to report Thursday’s earthquake. Within half an hour, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the tremor had been felt in Tehran, the capital.

But subsequent reports, some a few minutes apart, said the damage must have been principally to crops, with brief mentions that many casualties were feared in Zanjan and Gilan provinces.

The only detail reported for hours was that, when the quake hit, Tehran residents were either asleep or watching a World Cup soccer match between Brazil and Scotland. The report said that many people fled into the streets.

In addition, the news agency’s earliest reports dramatically underestimated the magnitude of the disaster. While IRNA reported 10,000 dead late Thursday, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations said 25,000 people had died.

Official radio was off the air when the earthquake struck, and although it came back on the air to report important news during the Iran-Iraq War, there was no such move Thursday. Iranian radio first reported the earthquake on the main newscast 6 1/2 hours later.

The radio, like the agency, also kept listeners informed about the areas hit and the number of casualties. But again, the reporting lacked color and description for hours.

The television’s first shots from the stricken north were screened 12 hours after the quake with no comment from reporters. When the scenes were replayed during newscasts, the anchors appeared unshaken by chilling clips such as one showing a stuffed toy and a small shoe lying in a street carpeted with debris.

Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani declared a three-day period of mourning for quake victims. But the television showed cartoons and an educational program for children and ended its programming with live transmission of a World Cup soccer match between Egypt and England.