Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Iran executed three men on Sunday after they were convicted of carrying out operations for Israel and the US and taking part in armed unrest targeting the government in January, state media reported. Iran has executed at least 35 people in recent months over the unrest, which it has said caused almost 3,000 deaths and widespread destruction of public property weeks before the US and Israel launched the ongoing war against the country.
Left out here: Leaves out what changes the picture
The article gives Iran's figure of almost 3,000 deaths and says nothing of the other account: non-governmental organisations say Iranian security forces fired on protesters and that the real toll was much higher. Without this, a reader believes the deaths were caused by the men and others like them, which is the Iranian government's version.
Human rights groups have said at least half of the 70 executions reported in Iran so far this year were directly tied to the unrest. The three men executed on Sunday were named Hassan Dioband, Hamid Kazemi and Reza Zanganeh. They were convicted of using firearms, grenades and Molotov cocktails, setting fire to public facilities and damaging an electricity substation in the city of Karaj, causing power outages . The judiciary said Dioband was arrested on 11 January after investigators identified him as a suspect in attacks on public property and incitement to violence.
Ten other persons accused of participating in the unrest under his supervision were subsequently arrested. After a trial, a lower court sentenced three of them to death and ordered their assets confiscated. It handed down prison terms of five to 10 years to the other accused. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the sentences on appeal.
The Independent, running Reuters copy, reports Iran's execution of three men and attributes the convictions and the death toll to Iranian state sources. In its own voice, though, it calls January's anti-government protests only 'unrest' and 'violent unrest', and never uses the word protest. It also gives Iran's figure of almost 3,000 deaths without the account from non-governmental organisations that Iranian security forces fired on protesters.
Tells the event as something else
Serious
“violent unrest”
Why this matters
The headline calls January's events 'violent unrest' in the outlet's own voice, with no attribution to Iranian state media.
The impression it gives
A reader believes January was a riot or armed uprising rather than a wave of anti-government protests.
The context
Other coverage of the same event describes nationwide anti-government protests that were met with a crackdown. The article never uses the word protest anywhere.
Here the outlet calls the events 'the unrest' in its own narration while explaining the executions, and then ties almost 3,000 deaths to that unrest.
The impression it gives
A reader takes the 35 executions as punishment for a violent uprising, not as part of the state's response to protests.
The context
The Jerusalem Post calls the executions part of the prosecution of 'prisoners detained in connection with the uprising' during 'January's nationwide anti-government protests'.
Iran executes three men convicted of working for Israel and the US during January's anti-government protests. Iran has executed at least 35 people in recent months in connection with the protests.
Leaves out what changes the picture
Minor
What is missing
The article gives Iran's figure of almost 3,000 deaths and says nothing of the other account: non-governmental organisations say Iranian security forces fired on protesters and that the real toll was much higher. Without this, a reader believes the deaths were caused by the men and others like them, which is the Iranian government's version.