The terrible repression of ordinary Iranians and reporters continues unabated in Tehran. The latest news to emerge is that the Canadian-Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari who was covering events for Newsweek has apparently ‘confessed’ to participating:
in a Western media effort to promote irresponsible reporting in Iran.
The whole thing started after Maziar gave Channel 4 News footage of Basiji members opening fire on a crowd of protestors. The Basiji responded by arresting Maziar who has been detaind since June 21. Then, as if right on cue, we have this from Iran’s state sponsored broadcaster Press TV:
…Bahari explained the nature of some of his activities in Iran over the past years and the role that Western media had played in the events, which unfolded in the country.
[...]
“Western media are an inseparable part of the capitalist machine of Western liberal democracies. A Western journalist who comes to Iran… is mainly concerned with the interests of the West, which are defined in relation to each issue at every period of time,” he said.
The Newsweek reporter said international press set the scenes for velvet revolutions in various countries, adding that the gentle overthrow of a government could not be achieved without their critical role.
Bahari specifically highlighted the role of the BBC, CNN, Euronews, The New York Times and Newsweek.
“On the brink of every velvet revolution Western media try to portray the ruling administration as the traditional, bigoted, inefficient and undemocratic side while introducing the Western-inclined trend as a modern, efficient, democratic, and reformist movement that has support among the people,” he said.
Bahar said that in such cases, several months prior to the vote foreign news outlets begin efforts to persuade the public that the election will be rigged and that a coup is just around the corner.
He added that these media outlets give full coverage to illegal protests with the belief that broadcasting such events will help enlarge their scale.
How can anyone continue doubting the bias of Press TV which spews this rubbish at the behest of its clerical-fascist backers? What’s worse is that they now broadcast to UK residents on Sky from their offices in West London.
Of course, we all knew long before the rigged elections that Press TV was little more than an organ for the Iranian regime but its slavish regurgitation of Tehran’s nonsense in recent weeks has reached new heights.
Stand up, Nick Ferrari. Until recently he presented a show on Press TV but resigned earlier this week in protest at its coverage of events in Iran. Press TV needs big-name presenters to give it an aura of respectability, making what Nick Ferrari did hugely courageous. This will damage Press TV – but only if other big names follow too. Rumour has it that Andrew Gilligan will shortly be resigning. But I wonder if those other defenders of ‘truth, justice and the oppressed’ like Yvonne Ridley and George Galloway will also resign? I’m not holding my breath.
Similarly, Iain Dale has announced he won’t be going back on Press TV as a pundit, and neither will the staff from his ‘Total Politics’ publication. For what is worth, I’ve been a guest on Press TV in the past too – and I won’t be returning either.
Newsnight covered this last night and invited the head of Press TV to defend himself. He was up against Martin Bright, the former political editor of the New Statesman:
Like a pathetic, loyalist apparatchik, Mathew Richardson just sits there coldly spouting the party line. Here’s an example of what Richardson calls his station’s “impartial” reporting of events. After the courageous Dr Arash Hejazi revealed what happened when Basiji members shot Neda Sultan, Press TV came out with this gem:
Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam, commander of the Iranian Police, said Wednesday that the unfortunate incident –which has been hyped and dramatized by Western media outlets [my emphasis]–, was in fact a ‘premeditated act of murder’.
The Iranian police chief said Arash Hejazi, a doctor who claims [my emphasis] he tried to save Neda’s life in her final moments, has fanned the flames of the western media hype.
Ahmadi-Moqadam said the Iranian Intelligence Ministry is making every effort to discover the whereabouts of Hejazi. “He has fled the country and is working against the Iranian government abroad.”
Media outlets in the West have blamed Neda’s death on Iranian security forces, but new revelations have found that she was murdered by a small caliber pistol–a weapon that is not used by Iranian security forces.
We could spend weeks dissecting that report above. We could dedicate a whole new blog to it, but I think it speaks for itself and you get my drift.
The fact that Press TV is not under investigation by Ofcom baffles me. How can such a blatant propaganda organ, funded by a regime that is deeply hostile to the United Kingdom, be allowed to broadcast here?
But while it does remain on the airwaves we can all follow in Nick Ferrari’s footsteps and boycott Propaganda TV.
5 Comments
How do I boycott a channel I’ve only watched once, didn’t want to watch then and never will watch again?
What a pile of POO the whole thing is, and I thought Islam Channel was bad.
I saw that Press TV Spokescreep Mathew Richardson on BBC Newsnight being tackled by Martin Bright. Mathew Richardson. An Englishman with a Christian name who has adopted the comic-book appearance of a Persian Bond villain ( replete with goatee and eyeliner ) to please his Iranian masters who he assists in the oppression of their people. He would be merely ridiculous ( with his arched eyebrow and gyrating shiny head ) were it not for the fact that the little creep is not merely mercenary but a Quisling, selling out both Iranians and his own country for the sake of a few bags of silver. What a two-faced slithery reptile he is, responding to every question with a smirking one-size fits all “thats nothing to do with me, you are asking the wrong person”.
Just to clarify – and I hope you don’t think I’m being too precious about this – that Press TV doesn’t broadcast on Sky, but broadcasts from the same satellite as Sky.
OFCOM requires that Sky gives other broadcasters access to listings and a channel number on its Electronic Programme Guide in return for a fee or inclusion in Sky television packages.
I just wouldn’t want people to be mistaken in thinking that Sky will “do anything for money” or are somehow condoning the channel when it’s entirely out of their hands. It’s not the same as, say, Nokia and Siemens with their direct dealings with the Iranian state.
how come he has time to work two jobs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hty3fhcLzPQ