Demo at Press TV

Press TV gets its funding from the Iranian government and despite its claims of independence has towed the Iran government line closely over events since the election there, ignoring or misreporting them.  Ofcom have just given it a rap on the knuckles for two programmes hosted by George Galloway which they ruled that Press TV breached the broadcasting code on impartiality over the Palestinian issue, and I hope will at some time also respond to complaints over their coverage of the Iranian elections and their aftermath.  But even more I hope for a change in Iran and the replacement of the Islamic republic by “a society where all human beings are free & equal without exploitation” as one of the banners at Sunday’s demonstration demanded.

I was glad I’d taken the underground out to Hanger Lane for this demonstration by UK and Iranian socialists and trade unionists outside the Press TV studio on Sunday afternoon, not least because there were very few photographers there. It isn’t the kind of event likely to interest the commercial press, and several of the other photographers who might have otherwise covered it were camping on the Isle of Wight for the Vestas occupation there.

Events like this – you can see more pictures and read more about it on My London Diary – are simply “not news” for the mainstream press, and so I was particularly pleased to see that my report and pictures was one of the four stories that made the front page on Demotix (the full story is here) and was still featured there over a day later. And of course I put it on Indymedia too.

© 2009 Peter Marshall.

I rather liked being able to show Neda Agha-Soltan holding a placard! Though her hand is just a little on the large side. Here is another example of the t-shirt:

© 2009 Peter Marshall

(If you need a clue about the 8 March, this page from 2004 will help. )

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