#azadsocial — Public Fediverse posts

When the conservative American commentator Tucker Carlson sat down last year for a buzzy interview with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian,
the unlikely encounter would most likely never have happened without the involvement of a tiny, independent Iranian outlet.

Mahdi Ahmadi, the founder of Azad, a six-person team that hosts debates in Tehran and publishes them on YouTube, pitched Mr. Carlson on the idea, he said, and then connected him with the president’s team.

This mediating role is a tightrope that Mr. Ahmadi and his team have become adept at walking over the past few years.

Their YouTube channel has aired views that are deeply critical of Iran’s government, alongside those of people close to the authorities, attracting a large and growing online audience, as well as scrutiny and criticism.

Mr. Ahmadi, 35, said in an interview with The New York Times that he saw Azad’s role as sitting between two opposing sides and creating a chance for mutual understanding
— and allowing viewers to judge each side’s arguments for themselves.
“We believe that, for the future of Iranian society, this is essential,” he said.

Crucial to Azad’s approach is Mr. Ahmadi’s studious impartiality as a moderator. He has described the channel as a neutral “court of ideas” where viewers could be exposed to, and assess, an ideologically diverse set of perspectives.

This year, Azad hosted a debate in which one scholar advocated an end to Iran’s Islamic government via a constitutional referendum.
Another went further — arguing for the return of the country’s exiled monarchy.
Weeks earlier, Iranian security forces had killed thousands of antigovernment protesters, some of whom were calling for the return of the former crown prince, Reza Pahlavi.

Critics of the channel question how Azad has been allowed to continue working inside Iran, given the censorship and control that the state exerts over the media.
Many assert that it must have protection from a powerful patron, which Mr. Ahmadi denies.

For the Iranian government, having a program like Azad inside Iran presents some benefits.

State television, which has a monopoly on domestic airwaves, is controlled by hard-liners,
and millions of Iranians instead get their news and entertainment from overseas Persian-language outlets, which can be stridently antigovernment.

By allowing some discourse within Iran, the government can attempt to dilute the influence of diaspora outlets while it also tries to shape those discussions.

Yet Azad (meaning “free” in Persian) has itself faced pressure from the state.
Its website is blocked by the government, and Mr. Ahmadi said the authorities had interrogated him several times.
During the June 2025 U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, the authorities seized Azad’s equipment for 25 days, after it aired twoprograms about the conflict, Mr. Ahmadi said

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/world/middleeast/iran-youtube-show.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

#azad #azadsocial

https://m.youtube.com/@azadsocial