Minister: Ahmadinejad furthers his message through "enemy's media"

Nov 1, 2010, 18:39 GMT

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is successfully using the 'enemy's media' to broadcast his messages to the world, the country's culture minister said Monday.

'The president is perfectly aware of the power and capacity of the media and makes the maximum use of the enemy's media for himself,' Mohammad Hosseini said at the closing ceremony of a press festival in the capital Tehran.

'Ahmadinejad succeeded to avail himself of these (Western) media to reflect the message of the revolution to the whole world,' he added.

Ahmadinejad's administration has branded the Western media as enemy mouthpieces who constantly try to misconstrue Iran's image.

The Culture Ministry, which is also in charge of local and foreign media, has accused the foreign media in general and the Western media in particular of waging a 'soft war' against Iran.

'The local media is fully aware of the ongoing soft war against us and should therefore safeguard our borders of belief and maintain its unity,' Hosseini said.

The media department of the Culture Ministry excluded Western media from this year's press festival in Tehran - a move it had not made in previous years.

It said it would not allow the presence of 'those media that are vain, dishonest and beguiling and consider themselves as the ultimate media sultans of the world.'

Ahmadinejad himself described the media as 'the sharpest weapon of the global powers.'

'Today, the real war is not on the military or political or economic, but the media front. They (world powers) are bombarding the world with their own news to hide the reality,' he said.

The foreign press has been drastically restricted in Iran since it reported on vote fraud allegations and street protests after the June 2009 presidential election that awarded Ahmadinejad a disputed second term.

Foreign media have since not been allowed to directly cover street protests or contact opposition groups, and are only authorized to cover events approved by the Culture Ministry's foreign media department.

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