When Mohammad Sarafraz was appointed in November 2014 to take over as head of Iran’s national television, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), expectations were that he would clean up a highly partisan institution suffering from budget and management issues. But Sarafraz, who founded IRIB’s foreign language programs Press TV, Al-Alam and HispanTV, has been beset with a number of controversies in recent months.
On March 22, a number of Iranian websites published rumors about Sarafraz’s alleged resignation and absence from work. Entekhab website wrote, “Under the circumstances where the days before Nowruz are the busiest days for the IRIB, Mohammad Sarafraz, the head of this organization, has not been present at his office for 10 days.”
