Iran Elections Snapshot: The #1 Subversive Moment "They're All the Same"

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It is precisely because of the authorities' control of the Iranian elections that this moment is special. In fact, it is doubly special because it occurs within an example of that control.

Ivan Watson's report for CNN is restricted, both by the monitoring and by his self-censorship. The filming in the mosque is part of the official guided tour, in which visiting foreign journalists were taken to three specific, scenic polling stations. There are guaranteed queues of voters, some of whom give appropriate statements to the press. Watson gives the impression that all this is the free expression of opinion, never mentioning the official organisation of his reporting tour.

In the original version of this piece, there is footage of an interview which escapes the restriction: on Election Eve, a young man in a Tehran square says there is no point in voting. (In this revised version, the footage is gone, replaced by the reporter's summary.) However, Watson does not explain that he and his crew were soon snatched by Basij militia and taken away for a three-hour detention --- which may explain why the reporter was editing himself so carefully in his Election Day coverage.

And yet there is the moment that escapes the control of the regime's officials. Just before the one-minute mark, a man at the mosque explains, "I am just going to vote out of chance. They're all good. It doesn't make any difference --- they're all the same. All Hezbollah. All religious. All good."

A glowing tribute to the Islamic Republic and its politicians? Watson certainly thinks so, "Many [candidates] simply say, 'We're religious.'...We follow the line of our Supreme Leader."

I am not so sure. "It doesn't make any difference --- they're all the same," the man says, and then, as he is paying the lip-service follow-up to "All religious. All good," he is not looking at Watson. I suspect he is looking at the regime's minders.

So, hats off to you, sir. I only hope for the sake of your future, that the regime officials who monitored CNN's output do not have the nuanced command of English that you displayed.