Mashregh News

Mashregh News (Persian: مشرق East) is a news website affiliated with the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, commonly called the "Revolutionary Guards", a military unit of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Described as "close to the security and intelligence organizations",[1] it is based in Tehran. Mashregh News often breaks stories of international interest.

In 2010, Mashregh News announced the 19-1/2 year prison sentence given to dissident Canadian-Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan. According to Masregh News, Derakhshan was "convicted of cooperating with enemy states, making propaganda against the Islamic system of government, promoting small anti-revolutionary groups, managing obscene web sites and insulting Islamic sanctities".[2]

The agency is known for censoring and altering news images. In 2011, when Sarah Shourd was released from an Iranian prison, Mashregh News blurred the areas of her breasts and arms in photos of her.[3]

In January, 2012, Mashregh News broke the story of the six month prison sentence given to women's rights activist Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former parliamentarian and daughter of former centrist president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. She was also banned from politics for five years.[4]

In 2012, Mashregh News published a report accusing the United States and the United Kingdom of collaborating with Zionists and Hollywood to promote homosexuality, as part of their plan for world domination.[5] The report referred to Tel Aviv as the "gay paradise on Earth".[6]

In January, 2013, Mashregh News reported the names of five Iranian journalists accused of being counterrevolutionaries, and "close to the plotters", terminology that the Iranian government uses to describe those working with its foreign opponents. Among the five were the editor-in-chief and two staffers for the reformist newspaper Etemaad, an editor for the newspaper Bahar, and an editor for the Iranian Labour News Agency.[7]

The Anti-Defamation League has accused Mashregh News of Holocaust denial for spreading disinformation such as citing the false claim that Nazis "manufactured soap from their Jewish victims" as evidence that The Holocaust never happened.[8]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Sahimi, Muhammad (May 3, 2011). "Iranian Media's Many Angles on Death of Osama bin Laden". PBS Frontline Tehran Bureau. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  2. ↑ Abdelaziz, Salma (September 29, 2010). "Iran's 'blogfather' sentenced to almost 20 years in prison". Cable News Network (Atlanta). Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  3. ↑ "'Sexy' freed U.S. hiker's breasts and arms 'too hot' for hardline Iranian website". News Track India. September 30, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Iran jails former President Rafsanjani's daughter: The daughter of the former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been sentenced to six months in prison for "making propaganda against the ruling system".". BBC News (London). January 3, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  5. ↑ Weinthal, Benjamin (September 5, 2012). "Iran: Zionists spread homosexuality to control world". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  6. ↑ Potts, Andrew (September 3, 2012). "Homophobic ‘world domination’ conspiracy claims made by Iran: A state owned Iranian news agency has claimed that Israel and the West are engaged in a conspiracy to spread homosexuality around the world in order to achieve world domination". Gay Star News (London). Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  7. ↑ Bozorgmehr, Shirzad (January 28, 2013). "Iran arrests journalists for working with regime opponents, foreign news outlets". Cable News Network (Atlanta). Retrieved August 18, 2012.
  8. ↑ Anti-Defamation League, July 5, 2012, Iran Media Uses Erroneous But Widely Circulated Holocaust Myth To Deny Authenticity Of The Holocaust


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