Western Media Misreport FNA Story to Inspire Public with Widening Rifts in Iran’s Political System
The western media outlets in the last two weeks have been misreporting an FNA news item carrying the general comments of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari about Iran’s post-revolution bureaucratic system in a bid to portray a confrontation between the IRGC and President Rouhani’s government.
The IRGC commander said during his speech at Imam Sadeq University in Tehran on Tuesday Dec. 10 that Iran’s bureaucratic system has not changed much in nature ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and is more or less still ruled by the same pro-western criteria that existed before the revolution.
In his comments, carried by the Persian Service of the Fars News Agency on the same day, the General reminded that every society is administered by those who major in Human Sciences, and said, “Human Sciences and management is the fundamental problem of our country at present; people capable of administering change and practicing change management are rarely found, while we need it much because no administrative revolution has happened after the (1979 Islamic) revolution. Of course, no cultural revolution has taken place either.”
“The systems and procedures governing the administrative system of our country are the same old system which has been slightly changed and is unfortunately infected by the western teachings and needs to undergo a fundamental change,” General Jafari said.
His remarks very clearly referred to the post-revolution status of Iran’s administrative system and do not at all point a shortcoming at any specific government, including the administration of President Rouhani, as it can be seen above.
But, a growing number of the western media have been misreporting this FNA news report by omitting the first paragraph, bringing a completely out-of-context translation of the second part of his comments preceded by completely baseless and forged headlines and news leads such as “Iran Commander Criticizes Government over Influence from West” to pretend that the IRGC and the Principlist camp have started an open confrontation with President Rouhani and his government.
See for yourself how these media outlets have tried to mislead readers’ views from the very opening of their reports through the following headlines:
Reuters: Iran Commander Criticizes Government over Influence from West
Telegraph: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard head hits out at Hassan Rouhani’s government
Jerusalem Post: Iran military chief says Rouhani government ‘infected by Western
The Daily Star: Iran commander criticizes Rouhani
Aljazeera: Iranian general criticises Rouhani government
Business Insider: Iranian Commander Criticises Rouhani’s Government For Being ‘Infected’ By The West
The list can continue for several pages as tens of other media outlets throughout the world have wired this completely false story, which seems to have been originally forged by Reuters. You may click on any of the above news stories to see for yourself that these reports do not stop at a misreported or misquoted headline and lead, rather most of them continue with an introduction to set the stage for the readers to believe that the bone of contention between the IRGC and the government is the recent nuclear deal struck between Iran and the six world powers in Geneva last month. Background paragraphs and a body of literature precede Jafari’s out-of-context, single-paragraphed remarks to make sure that the reader is left with no other speculation or interpretation, but a sharp criticism of Rouhani and his government by the IRGC commander.
It is not clear how far the western media, specially Reuters, intend to go in misinforming and cheating the public in the West as the above story has been only one of the recent cases of their misreporting on Iran’s President Rouhani.
In September, CNN misquoted and misreported Rouhani’s remarks about the Holocaust in an interview on the sidelines of the Iranian president’s visit to New York to attend a UN General Assembly meeting.
Also, yesterday Reuters falsely reported that President Rouhani has underlined his willingness to improve ties with the West in a contribution to the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, which was strongly denied by the president’s aide, Mohammad Reza Sadeq who told FNA that such an article basically never existed.
Reuters claimed in a Monday morning news report that the Iranian president has written “a contribution for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper” and said that “we want to rebuild and improve our relations to European and North American countries on a basis of mutual respect”.
“We are striving to avoid new burdens on relations between Iran and the United States and also to remove the tensions that we have inherited,” Reuters quoted the Iranian president as saying in Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
A few hours later, the Iranian presidential advisor strongly rejected the Reuters report, saying President Rouhani has not at all sent any note or article to Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The Iranian media wired or released similar reports on the basis of the Reuters news item, and Sadeq urged the Iranian media to contact the presidential office in such cases and avoid giving out news on the basis of foreign media reports on Iranian officials.
It is interesting that Reuters took off this last report from its website on Tuesday without presenting any explanation or apologies.
