South Africa – Features

Iran’s Crisis in the Western Media
 
By  Gary Smith

 
The media presentation of the recent36has been almost totally one-sided.
 
It seems that the battle lines and areas of the current confrontation with Iran are being drawn up by the media. In the virtual word of media hype and opinion, it is obvious that the recent Iranian elections are deliberately being manipulated and distorted by the Western media. This exploitation has also extended to the online world, taking advantage of sites like Facebook and Twitter for propaganda purposes.
 

While the ostensible subject of the present media attention is the legitimacy or otherwise of the elections and the always dominant question of democracy and human rights, the media interpretation and presentation of the Iranian situation is in reality not concerned with issues of fairness and legitimacy.

Even a cursory analysis of mainstream Western media reveals that what is of significance is the creation of a certain stereotypical image or a view of government of that country.

One can see this even in small but significant details – for example, the Iranian government is constantly referred to on news channels like CNN as the regime in Iran. This term implies a host of negative connotations that, with repetition, tends to create a stereotypical impression of the Iranian government and its rulers. This attempt at shifting public perception of Iran’s government principles is yet another form of exploitation by Western media.

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Pakistan probed reports today that a senior al-Qaida figure was among six people killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike, while in Washington Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expressed anger that Pakistan’s sovereignty had been violated.

Pakistan’s army says it had not confirmed that yesterdays strike killed al-Qaida operative Abu Khabab al-Masri, described by Washington as an expert who trained so called terrorists in the use of poisons and explosives.

But two Pakistani intelligence officials say they believed al-Masri had died, and an American official in Washington expressed cautious optimism. The U.S. offers a US$5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

The American official says "There is a real sense that this guy is gone". But he cautioned that there was no material evidence yet to confirm al-Masri’s death, such as a photograph of the dead man at the bomb site.

The pre-dawn strike on a border village in the South Waziristan tribal region came hours before Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House.

There is rising Western pressure on the four-month-old Pakistan government to act against Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds in its frontier region with Afghanistan amid concern that peace deals have given fighters more freedom to operate.

MRN-SAPA

Read More »Pakistan probes reports that senior al qaida figure killed in missile

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