Memo to Media: Rules for covering Iran

Note to All Editors.

Please ensure that journalists stick to following guidelines for reporting regarding any relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran:

• Any Iranians captives held by our side must be described as 'detainees' or 'terrorists'.

• Any members of western forces captured by Iran must always be described as 'hostages' or 'captives'. The events are to be described as a HOSTAGE CRISIS.
  
  
  
• Western hostages should always be described as being PARADED even if they are sitting down and eating dinner or reading scripts.
  
  
  
• There should be a clear implication that the hostages are being forced to do nasty foreign type things like making confessions against their will.
  
  
  
• In the event of any western sponsored UN statements, this must be described as an official UN resolution requiring immediate action under threat of force.
  
  
  
• Sufficient coverage must be given to PUBLIC OUTRAGE and ministerial level
  condemnation. Due consideration must be given to official British or American
  pronouncements and to published to official boundaries and GPS coordinates that provide supporting evidence for our case.
  
  
  
• Inconvenient facts such as torture and detention of Iranian detainees should NOT be included in order to provide context during this crucial period. This could confuse the public leading to sympathy for the Iranians.
  
  
  
• 'Iranian supply of 'sophisticated IEDs' to insurgents', 'nuclear weapons programme' and 'interference in government matters' should be used for context. The word 'alleged' should not accompany 'nuclear weapons programme' as it only sows confusion in the public mind.
  
  
• Iran must be described as a 'dictatorship', as a 'theocracy' and a 'sponsor of terrorism' in each and every report.
  
  
  
• Accompanying graphics should show Iranians to be sinister and threatening and
  Western forces as suitably heroic and/or suffering from maltreatment.

*Recommended nomenclature is highlighted in bold and italic.