Iran intends to sue over "unrealistic portrayal"!

[Mattar_Tharkari 10]

Media and entertainment organizations should be wary about depictions of the Islamic Republic of Iran in published material after officials from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced they were looking into the possibility of taking legal action against the production company behind the film Argo.

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/entertainment/article8405727.ece

Officials are said to be unhappy at the film's "unrealistic portrayal" of their military, people and country.

It is reported that the lawyer of notorious Venezuelan-born terrorist, Carlos the Jackal - Isabelle Coutant-Peyre was enlisted to argue their case.

The Shargh daily reports that Coutant-Peyre is in Iran to deliberate how and where to file the lawsuit.

If successful, will Iran take action against others or perhaps use the financial power of the state to engage in legal harassment as a form of external censorship?

Edited March 12, 2013 by Mattar_Tharkari

[ProfTournesol 956]

Next target : ArmA3 :lookaround:

[mrcash2009 0]

Hollywood is no innocent party to creating propaganda over the years, so the basic claim isn't exactly completely outlandish. This is Iran, I think the mental screws have been twisted well via John Bolton and many over the last 10 years to make sure any dispute they might have would be shouted down in moments.

You can pick any worse scenario, bad action in a film from any country on this planet and do similar.

[Hillsbills 1]

Next target : ArmA3 :lookaround:

Yeah, ARMA misrepresents them as a competent military.

[Smurf 12]

An hollywood movie misrepresenting something? What kind of madness is this?

[ProfTournesol 956]

An hollywood movie misrepresenting something? What kind of madness is this?

Lol yes, did they watch 300 ?

[Tonci87 163]

Imagine if the russians start suing everybody for depicting them as "the bad guys" in nearly every big hollywood movie...

[HoboPacifist 1]

Maybe they'll photoshop some more missile launches to scare us.

[onlyrazor 11]

Imagine if the russians start suing everybody for depicting them as "the bad guys" in nearly every big hollywood movie...

Forget that, what if Izhmash files a copyright claim?

[Tonci87 163]

Forget that, what if Izhmash files a copyright claim?

Ooooohhh that´s a nice idea!

[Mattar_Tharkari 10]

Media and entertainment organizations should be wary about depictions of the Islamic Republic of Iran in published material after officials from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced they were looking into the possibility of taking legal action against the production company behind the film Argo.

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/entertainment/article8405727.ece

Officials are said to be unhappy at the film's "unrealistic portrayal" of their military, people and country.

It is reported that the lawyer of notorious Venezuelan-born terrorist, Carlos the Jackal - Isabelle Coutant-Peyre was enlisted to argue their case.

The Shargh daily reports that Coutant-Peyre is in Iran to deliberate how and where to file the lawsuit.

If successful, will Iran take action against others or perhaps use the financial power of the state to engage in legal harassment as a form of external censorship?

It's on the go: Coutant-Peyre has given a press conference. I guess the trip to Tehran was suitably lucrative and Peyre has hinted that this may only be the first of many legal actions on behalf of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance:

http://www.tehrantimes.com/arts-and-culture/106414-i-will-make-argo-producer-apologize-to-iran-coutant-peyre

The Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has recently announced that it has hired Coutant-Peyre to file a lawsuit against the producer of “Argo†and the Hollywood companies over the production of films which promote Iranophobia.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is going to sue all those who have been active in the anti-Iran domain: Mehr News Agency (MNA) / Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization (IIDO).

There is a real chance that this could extend to the Gaming industry as it's well publicised that Iranian Officials view electronic games as central to a 'secret war' against their culture.

Isabelle Coutant-Peyre: Court case could get ugly? (95.39 kB):

Edited March 13, 2013 by Mattar_Tharkari

[On_Sabbatical 11]

Irani governement is a huge trolling system :D

[slatts 1978]

LOL "we shall sue you for making our army look bad ass and have some cool shit in Arma 3"... paraphrasing what would be said of course ;)

[cross888 10]

Yeah, ARMA misrepresents them as a competent military.

that tickled me.

Almost as much as the Troll award of the year going to BI for changing the gear key to I.

"Oh shit Grenade!! Down down down!!" :')

[oxmox 73]

Hollywood is no innocent party to creating propaganda over the years, so the basic claim isn't exactly completely outlandish.

Exactly......the world is not black n white and in general no real pure "good" ones exist fighting the "bad guys", thats absurd.

I have not seen the movie ARGO yet, but it sounds it celebrates the foreign interferences in Iran.

Edited March 14, 2013 by oxmox

[Dallas 9]

Maybe they'll photoshop some more missile launches to scare us.

Your honor I present you with exhibit A-1

[Gunter Severloh 4068]

Lol nice one Dallas!

Isabelle Coutant-Peyre: Court case could get ugly?

Dont think they have to worry about ugly they already have her to start it off, lol

Never seen a chick with a cigar before.

[Lauxman 10]

It's a movie. The director should be able to portray the Iranians as the most evil people in the world without fear of legal prosecution.

At least he's not being subjected to assassination attempts like any cartoonist who portrays the prophet Mohammed.

[Mattar_Tharkari 10]

There aren't really any legal grounds so it is unlikely to succeed unless there are some obscure laws somewhere where the film is released. There will still be a financial hit to both sides and the lawyers always get their cut so there never really needs to be any sound legal basis in the 1st place.

edit: As pointed out here if legal action were possible for inaccuracies in a work of fiction then many would have a case lol:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/13/iran-argo-brits-sue-hollywood

Though Hollywood is sometimes presumed by Iranian officials to be an instrument of the US government, there's no reason, in this wacky parallel universe, why it shouldn't sue itself. Oliver Stone's JFK, for instance, flat-out invented a case to support the view that John F Kennedy was murdered by the CIA in cahoots with Cuban exile organisations.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Mattar_Tharkari

[max power 21]

Yeah, ARMA misrepresents them as a competent military.

This is something they've been trying to do for years!

[Fuse 1]

One of my favorite lyrics of all time applies all too well here. "What you angry for, and acting all tense? If you innocent be cool, only the guilty's catching offense."

Basically the more a country tries to control how it's portrayed in the media the more likely it is they're doing something worthy of some Yankee "liberation" (not really). Iran would be funny if I didn't know real people had to live there.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Fuse
changed "to" to "too, clarified that I'm not in favor of US military intervention

[mrcash2009 0]

One of my favorite lyrics of all time applies all too well here. "What you angry for, and acting all tense? If you innocent be cool, only the guilty's catching offense."

True but you can adapt that to anything and anyone :)

[Fuse 1]

True but you can adapt that to anything and anyone :)

That's why I like it so much. haha

[vilas 477]

i understand the reasons , but first explanation with history:

- before internet our source of information were : media (newspapers, tv) and movies,

we couldn't get any other "independent" information, it caused that we were easier to be lied to, voters and societies were led by propaganda lies or true facts (we didn't have possibility to judge what is false what is not due to lack of "opposite site witness")

example ? maaany examples from past, cold war etc.

- nowadays we young and more or less or much more educated people communicate across the globe and get information but still ... still many many people follow only mainstream news media, also movies, older people who not use internet or very very young and naive people are led by propaganda,

- so if propaganda movie lies, i think "offended" site has right to react, now imagine that guys from Hollywood (or CIA order) one day do not like one country, lets call this country "Mamba" (lets imagine such country, which is developped , has industry, exports products to other countries and is serious economic competitor for some US, German, Isreali, British companies, lets say Mambians are biggest shoe-producer in globe, they produce more shoes than others and they are so good that US citizen, UK citizen, Israeli, German people walk in shoes made in Mambia) , when whole movies now produced shown oppression in Mamba , show movies about "death camps" led by Mambians government ... after year on stock markets noone wants to deal with Mambian companies, their rates on stocks go down, they economy goes down, some movies in TV show that Mambian government took away Israeli companies property or hollywood movie show how Mambian government sents their agents to organize terrorist acts in UK, Israel and planns assault in NY,

in period of 2-3 years 20-30% of voters in US, Israel , UK, whatever demands war agains Mamba, so ... we know what will be next... Mambian gov. will be replaced with other, their factories and industry will go down and... next year Mambian companies producing shoes do not exist, Mambian people must buy US, Chinese, British, German shoes ... from exporter they begin to be importer

how ? mass media, mass propaganda

it is just imagined example, do not call it conspiracy theory, this is how to use propaganda to prepare voters for war (and spending of tax money)

if woman which you look at her ass, can sue you for "sexual abuse", why country cannot sue company showing this country as evil ?

when you laugh at Hollywood's propaganda, you forget that for many percent of our societies - what they see in TV or movie "is truth" (except total sci-fi )

i repeat - today we have internet, we can check different sources , but majority of old people or people in small poor countries do not have it, they believe what they see on screen

not reacting leads to situation when "all agree that Mr. X is bad and Mr. Y is good" (cause there was 10 movies about mr x and mr y)

note: i do not know what is /was/will be life in Iran, all i said was relating to issue of sue'ing company which produced movie by persons shown in such movie as bad

Edited March 24, 2013 by vilas

[Mattar_Tharkari 10]

If this was a US propaganda film, which it isn't, they would more likely focus on the 66 hostages who:

-didn't get away and were held hostage for 444 days

-were treated very badly, beaten, starved, subjected to mock executions, had to listen to Iranians being killed and tortured in adjacent cells etc.

-were prevented from ever taking legal action against the Iranian Government by the Algiers Accord.

What I find bizarre is that last point - the Iranians want to take legal action against an entertainment film "loosely based on true events", while denying the hostages rights to legal action / damages for their illegal detention and mistreatment. If they had any credibility they would nullify those parts of the Algiers Accord and offer a muted apology to the hostages, many of whom suffered health problems for many years afterwards.