On December 20, 2018, Spiegel published a statement on Claas Relotius fraud case on its website that shocked the public. In this statement, the Spiegel apologized to its readers for publishing Relotius’s fabricated passages for years. This was proof of how vulnerable both the public opinion and media giants are to the spreading fake news.
Consequently, the German Journalists’ Union (DJU), called the case “the biggest fraud scandal in journalism since the Hitler diaries” that Germany’s Stern magazine published in 1983 and was later found to be forgeries.
Undoubtedly, when the demonizing campaign against the MEK/PMOI by media such as Guardian, Independent, MSNBC, Al Jazeera and English Channel 4 would be disclosed, the situation would become even more abhorrent.
The Iranian regime has a long history of spreading fake news aimed at demonizing the pivotal organization of the Iranian resistance, PMOI/MEK.
Recently we have witnessed how in the regime’s parliament, the tragic incident of the Science and Research Faculty of Azad (Open) University bus crash was attributed to the “Enemies”, to defame the PMOI.
The bus accident leaving behind 10 deaths and more injured, led to protests by the students who, unlike the media giants, are not deceived by the regime’s scandalous lies. The brave students did not let the charlatan regime’s officials parry their responsibilities.
The mullahs regime prefers its catastrophic policies in funding to be as a prop to Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the adventurous missile program for destabilizing the region rather than using it to remedy the infrastructure in Iran, turning the roads of the country to the most insecure ones in the world. And of course one must add to that, the heavy expenses which are spent on media giants to turn a blind eye on the truth. And in this manner, they neglect their own professional integrity.
Reporters’ principals have repeatedly been violated by the so-called journalists in the media such as Guardian, Independent, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English, and British Channel 4. The Iranian regime has distinctively planned to recruit those reporters and to employ them in the occasion of escalating popular protests and uprising for spreading fake news to demonize PMOI under the supervision of regime’s Ministry of Intelligence (MIOS).
While a mainstream media such as Der Spiegel is misguided by the German top writer’s made-up passages, how is it possible that a media that reflects the falsehoods of the MIOS not be deceived and not become the means of misleading the public opinion? Even if we, naively, exclude the economic benefits that are probably involved.
In fact, in recent years, we have seen times and again how the ardent supporters of Rouhani, like Reza Marathi and Saeed Kamali Dehghan in Guardian, Borzoo, in Independent, Lindsay Hylsam on British Channel 4, and Will Young on Al Jazeera English, have published fake news.
This kind of spreading fake news is the Persian version of Claas Relotius’s fabricated stories; the only difference is that the scenario of false claims to demonize the PMOI is completely directed by the MIOS. This issue becomes more disgusting when the media, not only do not investigate the accuracy of the reports of these individuals but also refuse to print the PMOI’s responses, the fact which in turn arouses suspicion on their intentions. While journalistic impartiality dictates that the victim’s response must also be published.
As a specific example, we can point to the fake news by these media about Somayeh Mohammadi. By spreading fake news, those dishonest journalistic claimed that she was forcibly kept in the PMOI, the organization that she is a member of. Somayeh has rejected the claims based on verifiable documents in her book, but the media refuse to acknowledge the truth and still continue spreading fake news.
Therefore, if the editors of Guardian, Independent, MSNBC, British Channel 4, and Al Jazeera English have the least respect for journalistic impartiality, they should take lesson from the Spiegel reporter case and dismiss the so-called journalists, whose purpose is to curry favor with the Mullahs by spreading fake news against the PMOI/MEK. The chief editors of those media owe a full apology, officially and publicly, to the PMOI/MEK for their attempt to discredit this organization by spreading fake news and for denying its rights.
