Iran: A new nuclear narrative

For the past decade, reporting on the nuclear negotiations with Iran has been a broken record of communication breakdowns, stumbling blocks and discord. But this month, following a breakthrough in Geneva, the tune has changed.

Some media outlets, especially the reform-minded newspapers in Iran, have sounded a triumphant note and criticisms from conservative outlets in Iran, the US and Israel have seemed off-key.

All the while, Iran’s new leadership has been projecting harmony through the same social media that previous administrations have treated with suspicion.

Discussing the new nuclear narrative on Iran, we speak to Hassan Beheshtipour, a Tehran-based journalist; Scott Peterson, Middle East correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor; Jasmin Ramsey, an Inter Press Service journalist; and Ali Vaez, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.

In our News Bytes this week: South African newspapers defy the ruling ANC party and publish photographs of the president’s private residence; the editor of one of India’s top investigative magazines,Tehelka, faces accusations of sexual assault; and a New York court has awarded a Haitian photographer $1.2m in a copyright case after Agence France Presse used his pictures without permission.

Also on this week’s show, we talk to Jeremy Scahill, who first made his name in 2007 uncovering the story behind US military contractors, Blackwater. Since then he has turned his attention to the Obama administration’s covert wars in countries like Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. Those investigations became his latest book: Dirty Wars and the documentary movie of the same name tells, not only this story but also the personal tale of a determined reporter pushing past government denials.

Scahill visited our London studios to discuss the movie, his journalism and the independent media outlet supported by eBay billionaire, Pierre Omidyar.

Finally, online comments sections can feel like the Wild West of the Internet and if what is at stake is fan frenzy over global pop stars like One Direction and Justin Bieber, things can get nasty. The YouTube comedy network, Dead Parrot, took one such exchange between two teenage uber-fans and recreated it as a sinister war of words between two ageing British thespians. With nearly two million hits, YouTube Comment Reconstruction #1 is our Web Video of the Week.