Press Release,
The Westminster Committee on Iran
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
... Payvand News - 12/01/07 ... --
