Fars News Agency

History

Fars News Agency was founded in 2003. In addition to Persian reporting, the agency also provides news in English, Turkish, Arabic, and Dari. Fars formerly published all content on its website under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Controversial stories

Interview with Egyptian president

In June 2012, Fars released an interview with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in which Morsi is said to have told Fars that he wanted to restore ties with Iran and wanted to "review" the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. Morsi later disputed the authenticity of the interview. Fars responded by providing what it said was audio of the interview. Arabic newscaster Al Arabiya quoted unnamed experts who said it was not Morsi's voice.

Reposted story by ''The Onion''

In September 2012, the agency picked up a story from The Onion, a satirical newspaper, about a supposed survey showing "an overwhelming majority of rural white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. President Barack Obama in the upcoming U.S. elections". The Iranian version copied the original word-for-word, even including a made-up quote from a fictional West Virginia resident who says he would rather go to a baseball game with Ahmadinejad because "he takes national defense seriously, and he'd never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does."

Fars News Agency later apologized for its mistake, but claimed that a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside of the American political system to President Obama and American statesmen.

Time machine story

In April 2013, the agency carried a story claiming a 27-year-old Iranian scientist had invented a time machine that allowed people to see into the future. A few days later the story was removed, and replaced with a story quoting an Iranian government official that no such device had been registered.

Alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda reports

In January 2014, Fars posted a series of articles that suggested U.S. security policy was being driven by an "alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda". The report said that proof was found in a Federal Security Service report carried out by Edward Snowden. The report said that the United States government had been secretly run by a "shadow government" of space aliens since 1945.

Salman Rushdie fatwa

In February 2016, Fars was one of 40 Iranian news agencies that pledged money toward the bounty against Salman Rushdie in regards to The Satanic Verses controversy. Fars promised $30,000 for the killing of Rushdie.

Yemenite Jews

In November 2020, the Agency sparked controversy after it shared an article by Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari denying the Holocaust and saying that the "real Holocaust" was against Yemenite Christians by the Jewish Himyarite Kingdom in 524 CE. Critics denounced the article as an anti-Semitic piece seeking to dehumanize Jews and downplay the brutality of the Holocaust.

References

References

1. (August 2020). "About Us". Fars News Agency.
2. (12 December 2009). "Iranian Seminarians Denounce Anti-Government Protesters". CNN.
3. (1 December 2009). "Iran Investigates Reports It Detained Britons-Media". Reuters.
4. (2016-01-13). "Iran demands apology after detaining US navy boat crews for 'violating' Gulf waters". The Guardian.
5. (21 May 2019). "Fars News, the Spider Net of Lies and Deception". Iran Disinformation Project.
6. (April 17, 2020). "Who Runs Iran's Propaganda Machine Abroad". Radio Farda.
7. (25 January 2020). "Iranian News Agency Targeted By US Sanction Resorts To Hacking To Get Domain Back".
8. (September 15, 2023). "Treasury Sanctions Iranian Officials and Companies Connected to Repression in Advance of the Anniversary of Mahsa "Zhina" Amini's Death".
9. (30 July 2009). "Media Environment Guide: Iran". BBC Monitoring.
10. "Farsnews". farsnews.ir.
11. "FarsNewsAgency". farsnews.ir.
12. "وكالة انباء فارس-ایران – Fars News Agency". farsnews.ir.
13. "خبرگزاری فارس-افغانستان – Fars News Agency". farsnews.ir.
14. Paraszczuk, Joanna. (25 June 2012). "Morsy Denies Iranian Interview on Peace 'Review'". [[The Jerusalem Post]].
15. Martinez, Michael. (29 September 2013). "Iran's News Agency Portrays Satirical Onion Story as Its Own". [[CNN]].
16. McGreal, Chris. (28 September 2012). "Iranian News Agency Fars Reports Onion Article on Ahmadinejad as Actual News – Satirical Newspaper's Claim That Americans Would Rather Hang Out with Ahmadinejad over Obama Taken Seriously in Tehran". [[The Guardian]].
17. Philip Caulfield. (1 October 2012). "Iran Fars news agency apologizes for running Onion article saying Americans prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama". Daily News.
18. Satherley, Dan. (18 April 2013). "Iran Denies Having Time Machine". [[3 News]].
19. Vahdat, Ahmed. (10 April 2013). "Iranian Scientist Claims to Have Invented 'Time Machine' – An Iranian Businessman Claims to Have Mastered Time with a Machine That Allows Users to Fast Forward up to Eight Years into the Future". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
20. (15 January 2014). "Iran's Fars News: U.S. is run by 'secret alien regime'".
21. (14 January 2014). "U.S. Policies Driven By Aliens, Says Iran's Fars News Agency". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
22. (13 January 2014). "Iranian News Agency: Snowden Docs Reveal Alien Conspiracy".
23. Fisher, Max. (2014-01-13). "Iranian news agency says the U.S. is secretly run by Nazi space aliens. Really.". The Washington Post.
24. (2016-02-22). "Iranian media outlets add to bounty for killing Britain's Rushdie". Reuters.
25. (15 November 2020). "Iran media pushes Holocaust denial: Jews perpetrated mass murder in Yemen".