BBC Totally Blind to Nationwide Feb. 11 Rallies in Iran

This is not the first time that the BBC propaganda outlet comes under fire for its biased approach and violation of professional ethics when it comes to covering events related to Iran. The well-established media giant, using the cliché “You’re watching BBC World News/You’re listening to BBC Radio,” shaped a determining chapter in Iran’s history decades ago. A considerable number of Iranian politicians and the masses will not forget that the media outlet’s control room turned into a nerve centre for a military coup in 1953 against the government of former Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, a popular and patriotic figure. The coup came in retaliation for his nationalization of Iran’s oil industry.

Despite such a role played by BBC, Iranians interested in politics traditionally do not miss its programs in order to keep abreast of Britain’s schemes for Iran’s future. Truly and clearly, Iranians today are not comparable to what they were six decades ago, and the general public, thanks to years of struggles to secure their country’s independence, happen to be able to read, even more intelligently than professional politicians, the minds of those running domestic and foreign media, so they will not have to pay, once again, the price of getting caught unawares and forgetting the lessons of the contemporary history of their country.

The Persian-language Fars News Agency has, in a memo, blasted the BBC’s performance when it comes to covering events and developments pertaining to Iran. The full text of the memo follows:

Iranian people turned out in droves in different towns and cities across the nation Sunday for rallies marking the anniversary of the triumph of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran.

The turnout was so large that different media outlets across the world, even Israeli media, had to cover the event, describing it as hundreds-of-thousands-strong or millions-strong rallies.

Not to mention Saudi and Emirati media, probably the only media outlet which preferred to remain tight-lipped on the huge rallies was the BBC. The British media company has not broadcast any news on the event so far as if February 11 was an ordinary day in Iran like other days.

This comes as the recent unrest in some Iranian cities a few months ago made headlines in the BBC news, so much so that the British company broadcast news on the Iran unrest every minute, sometimes using unconfirmed images.

The BBC’s double standards on Iran developments is reminiscent of the fact that the media outlet is acting against its own motto of neutrality, and rather than covering events as they unfold, it has politicized the developments, and only broadcasts the news which has a place in the media outlet’s jigsaw.