Fars and Kayhan have been dishing out shocking photos to back up the Islamic Republic’s assertions that the British government is cruel and abusive to peaceful demonstrators who are marching in the streets urging that the dictatorial monarchy be overthrown and democracy established in the United Kingdom. (Well, that’s what the regime is saying.)
There are a few problems with of the photos. They weren’t taken last week—and some of them aren’t even from the United Kingdom.
One photo showing police with raised batons chasing people also shows a stop sign in the background. The sign says “Pare,” stop in Spanish.
The Guardian of London said one photo showing a street filled with police had been dated to 2008 and showed the officers on duty at a carnival in the London neighborhood of Notting Hill.
An obvious sign that all is not as it was declared to be can be seen in multiple photos of police attacking protesters—but the protesters are dressed in winter overcoats.
Yet another picture is in black and white, strange for a news photo from 2011. But the picture isn’t from 2011. It is more then a quarter-century old, showing British police tacking miners during a violent strike in 1984.
Another sign the editors are playing games is the fact that the Iranian press has been reporting the protests in London continuing long after they ended. Kayhan carried a photo of police on horseback confronting protesters in its Sunday edition. But the British disorders ended the previous Tuesday, five days before.