While Iran has not yet taken a public position on the Catalan independence referendum in Spain, Iranian media has given the vote widespread coverage. Scenes of violence by Spanish police, which so far has left over 700 people injured, have featured prominently on media websites.

“Catalan’s independence referendum has begun,” read Khabar’s headline early Oct. 1. “Spanish court blocks budget for Catalan independence referendum,” read an article by conservative Tasnim News Agency. An article carrying pictures of ballots was headlined “Ballot of Catalan independence referendum from Spain.”

The Iranian media’s coverage of the Catalan referendum can be contrasted with their coverage of the recent Kurdistan referendum vote, which the Islamic Republic of Iran publicly opposed and its media widely criticized. Nearly all of the headlines in Iranian media described the Catalan referendum as an “independence” referendum. The Kurdistan referendum in northern Iraq was described as a “separatist” vote. The double standard of coverage spanned across both Reformist and conservative outlets, newspapers and websites.

This double standard in coverage was not lost on Iranian Twitter users who noted that while criticizing foreign media, particularly the British Broadcasting Corporation, there is rarely the same type of critical eye toward domestic media.