UK Regulator Admits Paper Churning Out Anti-Iran Falsehood

Date: 28 April 2023 - 22:39

News ID: ۱۱۴۴۲۳

LONDON (Dispatches) -- The UK-based pro-Israel outlet Jewish Chronicle has been found guilty of breaching journalistic standards over its false claim that Iran is bent on wiping all Jewish people off the earth.
The Jewish Chronicle, the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper, claimed in a November 2022 opinion article over the FIFA World Cup in Qatar that Iran “has repeatedly vowed to wipe… Jews off the face of the Earth”.
A ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organization, which is the regulator of the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK, said the outlet did wrong by raising such a “significant” claim that “easily needed verification.”
The IPSO ordered the Jewish Chronicle in its ruling to publish a full correction in both print and online over the claim.
Iran has been a staunch supporter of Palestine following the victory of the 1979 revolution. The Islamic Republic views Israel as a fake regime that should be dismantled, proposing a referendum involving all the original inhabitants of Palestine as a solution to the conflict.
The complaint that led to the latest ruling was filed by Inayat Bunglawala, a British Muslim

activist who has previously served as the media secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella group for British Muslim organizations.

Bunglawala wrote in a post on his blog that it was time for the IPSO to “acknowledge that enough is enough” and that a standards investigation into the outlet must now be opened.

“A failure to open a standards investigation can only embolden the Jewish Chronicle and encourage other bad actors in the press with the notion that they can continue to publish blatantly false information while only risking a mild slap on the wrist from IPSO. A failure to open a standards investigation would also lessen public confidence and trust in both IPSO and our press at a time when it is already dangerously low,” he said.

The IPSO has so far resisted such calls, and has instead held a training program for Jewish Chronicle staff.

Facebook, Twitter Under Pressure

Social media groups Facebook and Twitter have come under pressure from pro-Israel lobby groups to remove accounts of Iran’s leading broadcaster Press TV from their platforms.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCHD) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have demanded that Press TV be blocked for publishing content in Britain, The Telegraph reported Thursday.

ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt said it was “inexcusable” to offer Press TV a platform.

“We urge Meta [the owner of Facebook] and Twitter to immediately launch an investigation and to take action to prevent Press TV and the Iranian other media outlets from misusing these social platforms.”

“Facebook and Twitter profit by providing Iranian state propagandists with the reach and amplification they need to evade domestic broadcast bans, and influence millions of new viewers in the West,” Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the CCHD, said.

Their concern is particularly focused around Press TV’s “Palestine Declassified” program, formerly hosted by former UK MP Chris Williamson and former Bristol University professor David Miller.

Williamson was suspended from the Labour Party after dismissing concerns about anti-Semitism in the party as “smears” and “bulls---.” And Miller was dismissed from Bristol University after he revealed Jewish students critical of his views were “directed by Israel.”

The groups cite an episode of the Press TV program devoted to unpacking the “witch hunt” in Labour and the way the party was “captured by key Israel lobby groups.”

In July 2013, Press TV was forced off the air in the UK after the media regulator Ofcom revoked its license for allegedly breaching the Communications Act.

In the same year, it was taken off the air in North America after the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).

Press TV was dropped from the Galaxy 19 satellite platform that allowed it to broadcast in the United States and Canada, without saying when it was dropped.

The network has denounced the measures as “media terrorism.”

The broadcaster has a large number of viewers across Western countries and a considerable number of followers on social media.

In December 2022, Firas al-Najim, a Canadian human rights advocate, said Press TV is the voice of the oppressed, a news network working to expose the crimes and double standards of the West against free nations.

Weeks after the European Union imposed sanctions on the leading broadcaster, French satellite operator Eutelsat notified Press TV of its plan to take the network off the air. Najim said then that the move unmasked the conspiracy of the Western governments.