Taking a break from undermining the regime in Iran…

Mehdi Saharkhiz stopped by the house yesterday afternoon for a chat.

I read about him in The Guardian last week and was immediately intrigued. The headline in the Guardian ran:

Iran protests: One-man video channel that is a thorn in Tehran’s side

I was not disappointed.

Saharkhiz is a refugee from Iran, living and working in New Jersey. But in his spare time (in all of his time) he is running an online TV station (if that is not an archaic use of the term) that is webcasting Iranian news back to Iran.

Saharkhiz gets his material from thousands of Iranians across Iran who have cell phones with video cameras.  Almost everyone in Iran has a cell phone and most of those cellphones have the capacity to record video.  If they upload it to an Iranian site, they face the prospect of arrest, interrogation and possible imprisonment.  Not a pretty picture.

Saharkhiz, operating from his home in New Jersey has given these Iranians a place where they can send their videos and then watch them aggregated and sent back to their nation to watch.

Most Iranian computers are on dial up or DSL, so Saharkhiz converts the HD stuff, of which he gets more and more as the phones get better, back to low res so everyone in Iran can see it.

Saharkhiz gets 200-250 videos a day. More if there is a big protest or event going on.

And what do they video?  The police beating people in the streets, spontaneous protests, even, says Saharkhiz, the lies of the Ahmadinejad government. For example, if Ahmadinejad goes to a government sponsored rally, the State Television may say that 1 million people attended and show a tight shot of waving crowds.  Saharkhiz’s people upload wide shots of empty stadiums with a small group in front crowded around State TV camera crews.

Interesting stuff.

“AP and CNN are far behind” says Saharkhiz.

No doubt this is true. While AP and CNN still send a single correspondent to Iran (and when they do get in it is big news!); a correspondent who does not speak Farsi and has little access to what is really happening in Iran – and is generally there for a few days at most.

Saharkhiz has, in  my opinion, created a very different and very interesting model of how journalism could and perhaps should be done.

The sophistication of cell phone technology now means that there are literally millions of cameras across Iran – far more than any government, no matter how repressive, could possibly control. They are also in the hands of people who are living the ‘story’ every day, and know it quite intimately (as opposed to a western reporter who jets in for the weekend to ‘report’).

There was a time, not so long ago, when this idea of ‘crowd sourcing’ for real-time news would have been simply impossible.  The technology did not exist.

Now, it does.

With thousands of people across Iran armed with cell phone video cameras, and upset with the way the current regime is running the country (and many convinced that the election had been stolen); they now have a voice for their opinions and a way to create a different kind of journalism.

Saharkhiz, in New Jersey, is the nexus, the focal point, of their videos – their quest to get the truth out on a minute to minute basis.

Saharkhiz does not editorialize – the simply posts what gets sent him. He leaves it to the viewers to discern what is true and what is not.

“They know the places, they know what they weather was, they know what is real and what is not” he says.

The Iranian government has been rigorous in its attempts to shut down Saharkhiz’s site, which is why he runs 21 of them simultaneously. If one goes down another one pops up.  It’s a never ending game of cat- and-mouse.

In this country, we don’t have to worry about the government blocking sites, so you can see his site here, at onlymehdi.com

Mehdi Saharkhiz has tapped into something very interesting – a new way of delivering journalism. It is raw and it is real and it has a deep impact on the people of Iran and the current government as well.

Saharkhiz is a curator, to use a Jeff Jarvis term, of a massive flow of video based information that is coming directly out of Iran on a daily basis.  This is real.  This does not require sending camera crews or attractive reporters or make up people or satellite trucks.  This is happening now, daily, and it is free.  It is a river of content that conventional broadcasters need  only dip into, if they are so inclined.

This is journalism coming up from the people.  Saharkhiz curates, repackages then sends it back to the very people who have made it so they can share it amongst themselves and show it to everyone else in Iran.

It has a devastating impact because it is true.

And it costs next to nothing.

Massive broadcast operations like The Voice of America or The BBC have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on “Persian Services”, which are created in London or Washington DC and then broadcast to Iran via short wave or satellite.  Saharkhiz’s operation emanates from his apartment in New Jersey and costs a few thousands dollars a month.

But Saharkhiz has hit upon a model that could work worldwide, as billions of people get their hands on cellphones with video capacity.

All they need is a place to send it.

Like New Jersey.