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Abu Dhabi: A potential conflict in Iran is sending waves of alarm in the media community hoping to learn from the mistakes of covering the war in Iraq.
"The similarities between Iran and Iraq before the war are too great to ignore," Mahmoud Werwari, anchor at Al Arabia and moderator of the Covering Iran session, said on Monday, at the second day of the Arab Broadcast Forum being held in Abu Dhabi.
"There is talk of weapons of mass destruction and threat of war, we cannot ignore these similarities," said Werwari.
This standoff between Washington and Tehran sent Western media into Iran prior to any escalation of the conflict hoping to give the West a real glimpse of the Iranian people.
With major channels like CNN, Fox News and ABC news reporting in Iran, there is hope that this increased coverage will portray a more balanced approach that will ultimately lessen the fear of yet another war.
"There is fear there could be an accidental conflict in the Strait of Harmouz between American vessels and Iranian Revolutionary Guards," Amy Kellog from Fox News told the conference on Monday.
Speaking on the freedom to move through out Iran without being restricted by the government, Kellog said: "They do attach some one to us but that is very common in this region ... there are certain stories they are very happy for us to cover like the drug problem with opium."
Ali Nouri Zedeh, director of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, told the audience: "Contrary to popular belief, Iranians love Americans. They want to know more about them; not everyone shares the views of (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad."
The conference, on its final day, also discussed utilizing television and the reliability of new media, such as YouTube.
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