Iran Feature: Top Iran Newspaper Protects the Oscars from Michelle Obama's Shoulders

Fars, the Iranian newspaper linked to the Revolutionary Guards, is not just interested in military matters. It also likes to keep an eye on fashion and the movies. And when the First Lady of the United States has a new dress as she awards Best Picture at the Academy Awards, that is an opportunity not to be missed.

Only one problem: Michelle Obama's shoulders.

Time for the Fars Photoshop Department to spring into action:

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Iran Feature: PhotoShopping a "Decent" Assad Family

PhotoShop has been a handy tool in the Islamic Republic to ensure the "right" images replace the "wrong" one for the public, from adding test-fired missiles to protecting Iranians from the cleavage of the West's women diplomats to cleaning up films and television shows of the immorality of bare arms and uncovered heads.

And not even a political ally is immune from the censor's changes.

Last week Mashregh News posted a feature on Bassel al-Assad, the elder brother of Syria's current President, killed in an automobile accident in January 1994. The article was a straightforward eulogy of "the symbol of Islamic resistance", with lots of photographs:

One of those pictures was of the Assad family, albeit with a couple of changes.

Here's the original --- long-time Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, his wife, his four sons, and his daughter:

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Iran Special: Photoshop Propaganda With Lots of Missiles (and Jar Jar Binks!)

You never know when your past propaganda efforts are going to rear up and bite you on the backside. 

Indeed, the editors of the prominent Iranian website Mehr may still not know this.

On Friday, Mehr illustrated a reassuring story about Iran's missile programme --- "French official: No Threat of Europe" --- with an archive photograph of lots of those missiles.

First problem? The image is a Photoshop. In fact, it's not just a Photoshop, it's a Photoshop of a Photoshop.

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EA PhotoShop Cyber-Special: How The "Levitating Chinese Officials" Became an Internet Sensation

Last Sunday, a Chinese surfer of the Net was so bored that he/she visited the website for his local government. The headline story? The upgrade of a road to the countryside.

And so an Internet sensation was launched.

The story was no thriller. The photograph, however, was rather distinctive (see the top of the page). Through superhuman powers, or more likely a very bad PhotoShop effort, the three officials were not just inspecting the road. They were levitating above it.  

This, however, was only the start of a marvellous story. Soon, with the assistance of the Internet community in China, the Levitating Officials were visiting more exciting places and seeing Very Important People. This is just a selection from their cyber-travels on Earth...and beyond.

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Iran Journalism Special: Protecting the Nuclear Talks from Lady Ashton's Cleavage

Forget all the chatter about weapons, uranium stocks, and "break-out" capability at the nuclear discussions in Istanbul between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, China, Russia).

The clear-and-present danger was the chest of Lady Catherine Ashton, the head of the 5+1 delegation.

It was the newspaper Iran, confronted with a picture of Ashton and her Iranian counterpart, Saeed Jalili, that saw the threat of cleavage. However, thanks to their quick-working editors and PhotoShop, the mutually assured moral destruction of the original photograph (right) was averted: