News: IRAN’S foreign ministry has criticised the media for branding French first lady Carla Bruni a “prostitute” after she pledged her support for a woman sentenced to death by stoning.
“Insulting officials of other countries and using indecent words is not endorsed by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” AFP quoted the foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying. “I hope the media will pay attention. The media can criticise the hostile policies of other countries, but by refraining from using insulting words. This is not correct.”
On Saturday, Iran’s hard-line daily newspaper Kayhan made a blistering attack on the wife of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, branding her a “prostitute”.
The newspaper ran a story headlined “French prostitutes enter the human rights uproar,” in which it criticised Bruni for supporting the Iranian mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, 43, who has been sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery.
Despite the ministry distancing itself from the media’s comments on the French first lady, the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, has condemned the worldwide outcry against the sentence handed down to Ashtiani.
In an interview published in the German magazine Der Spiegel yesterday, Mottaki said criticism of the sentence was part of a Western plot.
“The West must be careful not to allow itself to be misled by people who seek to harm our reputation. Many of the things that were reported on the most recent case are either completely incorrect or contradictory,” he said.
“The campaign is now backed by people who, with the help of a few European politicians and the media, are playing a rigged game. We will soon announce further information about what is behind this game.”
He said the Ashtiani’s sentence was under review and no decision about whether the stoning would proceed had yet been made. Mygripe
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