Rumour and speculation in Iran have been rife for generations that the BBC has had a hand in every political upheaval in the country. In this vein the BBC has become a notable element in the complex and tortured narrative of Anglo-Iranian relations. The BBC Persian Service was initially developed in 1940 to prepare and broadcast British war-time propaganda. And it has since been seen by many in Iran as an integral part of British policy-making in the region. Those participating and organising the British-planned removal of Reza Shah in 1941, the CIA-led 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Musaddiq and the domestically inspired Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, have all at one time or another been accused of having links with the BBC. In this book, Annabelle Sreberny and Massoumeh Torfeh track the history of the BBC’s Persian Service, critically analysing both the assumptions that the corporation is a standard bearer for objective reporting and representations of it as a simple tool of Western interests.

Persian Service: The BBC and British Interests in Iran (International Library of Iranian Studies Book 40) PDF

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