Following the recent media circus that surrounded President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to New York and accusations by many that the Western media are not giving Iran a fair hearing, this discussion will assess whether the media are objective in their reporting of Iran or whether we are being softened up for military action against Tehran.

This meeting, organised by the Westminster Committee on Iran, will be part of a series of parliamentary meetings on Iran and the media. Future meetings hope to involve journalists and editors who have been accused of deliberate bias such as Con Coughlin (the Daily Telegraph) and Simon Tisdall (the Guardian) as well as broadcast regulators from the Independent Press Complaints Committee and the BBC’s complaints department.