Iran media faces backlash over acid attacks coverage
Iranian authorities have criticized domestic and international media organizations for suggesting the crimes may have been connected to veiling enforcement.
Iranian media outlets that have covered the acid attacks on women in the city of Esfahan have been criticized for and warned about associating the crimes with "vice" groups enforcing Islamic values. While Iranian authorities have attempted to address concerns about the attacks, they have also warned domestic media outlets over their coverage.
The weekly 9 Dey, affiliated with conservative parliamentarian Hamid Rasaei, reported that those “who have a problem with the Islamic command ‘enjoining good and forbidding wrong’” are using the acid attacks as an “excuse.” The article blamed the BBC, which it referred to as the “news agency of the old imperial fox,” for being the first to suggest that the acid attacks were related to the enforcement of veiling by vigilantes.
Ansar-e Hezbollah had announced that it would take to the streets of Tehran to enforce Islamic norms, but later announced it had been dissuaded from doing so. The 9 Dey report blamed the BBC for reporting on Ansar-e Hezbollah’s first statement but not second. According to 9 Dey, after the BBC report, domestic media then followed its lead.
However, the website for Ansar-e Hezbollah, Yalasarat alHussein, republished an editorial from Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by the supreme leader, blaming the Islamic Students’ News Agency (ISNA) for being the first to connect the acid attacks to veiling enforcement. The editorial also accused Reformist media organizations of using the acid attacks to “curse defenders of veiling and values,” which then led to non-Persian media outside the country to pick up the story and depict Iran “as divided,” condemning the “manufactured differences” presented in the media.
