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British MPs Condemn Anti-Iranian Media Bias |
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Saturday, 01 December 2007 |
PRESS RELEASE - British MP's Condemn Anti-Iranian Media Bias
Embargoed 1st December 2007
A new report published today suggests that the portrayal of Iran in the British
print media is overly negative and frequently misleading. Among the key findings
of the report are that, in one week from 29th October to 5th November 2007,
there were 112 articles that mentioned Iran in the national press and of those
89% were deemed to be "overly negative". The report also found that 45% of
articles "contained unsubstantiated, misleading or inaccurate statements about
Iran". The report concludes that the culminative effect of repetitive negative
or misleading statements is to create "an accepted wisdom on Iran that is not
grounded in reality".
The survey, undertaken by the Westminster Committee on Iran, looked at 19
national newspapers in the UK for a week long period. It found that whilst most
articles were unbiased and factually-based, 74% contained a sentence or two that
rendered the article "overly negative" or "misleading". The most common of these
misleading sentences were:
- stating that Iran had threatened "to wipe Israel off the face of the map". In
fact the Farsi phrase used by President Amadinejad was "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e
ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad." This translates
directly as "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the
page of time. This statement is very wise". Whatever the interpretation of this
translation, "a regime vanishing from the page of time" is very different from a
threat to wipe a nation off the map.
- stating that Iran is responsible for supplying weapons and intelligence to
terrorists in Iran. Despite many accusations, no evidence has been produced to
link the Iranian government to Iraqi insurgents. General Peter Pace, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted at a Pentagon news this year that he had no
evidence of the Iranian government sending any military equipment or personnel
into Iraq.
The report, Iran in the British Print Media, finds that a general impression has
been created in the UK media that Iran is acting against the will of the
"international community" in continuing to develop a covert nuclear weapons
programme. This impression is deemed to be misleading to the extent that there
is absolutely no proof that Iran has a nuclear weapons programme. Inspections
over the past three years have found no evidence of a nuclear weaponization
programme. The idea that Iran is defying the will of the world community ignores
the fact that 118 nations of the Non-Aligned have recognise Iran's right for a
civilian nuclear technology and 56 nations signed the Baku Declaration which
stated "the only way to resolve Iran's nuclear issue is to resume negotiations
without any preconditions and to enhance cooperation with the involvement of all
relevant parties".
The report follows the recent publication of a major study into the portrayal of
Muslims and Islam in the UK print and broadcast media. The report was produced
Insted Consultancy was researched by 9 leading academics, professionals from the
media industry and experts on Islam, and shows that during the period of
investigation the national media overwhelming portrayed Muslims and Islam in a
negative way.
The Westminster Committee on Iran aims to increase dialogue and understanding
between Tehran and British parliamentarians and avoid military intervention
against Iran.
Visit -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:The_Westminster_Committee_on_Iran
If you are a British citizen and would like to be involved in this exercise we
would invite you to contact you constituency MP and ask them their position with
regard to UK support for military action against Iran in the absence of United
Nations authorisation. Please send your findings to
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Source: Westminster Committee on Iran
Comments posted are the sole opinion of the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of AIM. |
