Iran Feature: The EA Story That Made It Big in Iranian Media

Picturing EA's Story on Gerdab: Bahrain's King Hamad & Britain's David CameronWe have been informed in the past that EA WorldView is not necessarily the favourite site of those in the Iranian establishment. Although many officials read our coverage, they deny this to others in Iran, blocking the website.

So imagine our surprise when we learned this morning that one of EA's stories --- Josh Shahryar's "Bahrain Opinion: 'Loonies' and The Sins of Bell Pottinger" --- is racing across the Iranian media. Apparently, for all the dislike of EA's coverage of Iran, the regime can reconcile with us on a story which is about the Bahraini monarchy, not particularly liked by Tehran, and about a company based in Britain, also not liked very much.

The tribute begins with BarackObama.ir --- "In the Country Where the US Has No Embassy" --- set up two years ago to take aim at the US President. Its summary headlines, "Bahrain Regime Pays Money to Have Wikipedia's Articles", or in the Persian version,  "Removal of Al Khalifa Crimes from Wikipedia by the British".

There are other differences between the English and Persian entries. The former is pretty much a straight summary of Josh Shahryar's opinion. The latter --- whether from issues in translations or from mischief --- has notable changes. Shahryar, who is from Afghanistan, is now a "Western researcher". His Twitter message becomes the prompt for bloggers and The Independent of London --- those who actually broke the Bell Pottinger story --- to look into the matter. Perhaps most significantly, the PR firm is portrayed as having acted after getting a green light from the British Government and doing so in co-operation with Wikipedia.

It is that Persian re-writing about "the English company that has a higher power to whitewash clear cases of crimes in the State of Bahrain"  that is on the hard-line Raja News, the conservative Jahan News, 2009 Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei's Tabnak, Khadem News, Shia Online, and other websites. EA even makes it to Gerdab, linked to the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran Audio Feature: How Ahmadinejad's Advisor Stumbled Into An Admission of The Battle Within

Complaints against "some of the people in powerful positions"? With that sentence, the President's Ali Akbar Javanfekr had given journalist Masih Alinejad the admission of the battle within the Iranian establishment and opened up this question: how high up do the Presidential complaints go?

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The Latest from Iran (13 September): The Revolving Door of Freedom?

2020 GMT: Latest on US Detainee Sarah Shourd. Masoud Shafiee, the lawyer for detained US citizen Sarah Shourd, says that her family is appealing to Iran's authorities to drop or reduce. the $500,000 bail demanded for her release because of difficulties raising the money.

Shafiee said authorities had given no response to the bail request.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley said, "The United States government does not fund prisoner bail."

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the Obama Administration is in close contact with the families of the three detained US hikers --- Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal --- and the Swiss Embassy, which represents American interests in Iran.

"The situation is continuing to develop," Vietor said. "We remain hopeful for a positive outcome."

Shafiee said authorities had given no response to the bail request.

2000 GMT: Diplomat Number Four. The Norwegian paper Dagblodet reports that Farzad Farhangian, the Iranian Press Attache in Belgium, has resigned his post and is now in Oslo seeking asylum.

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