IRAN: JOURNALIST PROPOSES BASKERVILLE DOCUMENTARY

S E C R E T LONDON 000445


NOFORN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2019
TAGS: KPRP PGOV PHUM PINR PINS PREL PROP IR UK
SUBJECT: IRAN: JOURNALIST PROPOSES BASKERVILLE DOCUMENTARY
TO HELP SET POSITIVE TONE, IMPROVE U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS

REF: EMB LONDON (GAYLE) E-MAIL SENT 2/18/09 TO NEA/IR
AND IIP/NEA-SCA

Classified By: Classified By: Political Counselor Richard Mills, Jr. for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (S/NF) Summary: A UK-Iranian dual citizen journalist and
historian told London Iran Watcher (poloff) he seeks USG
support to make a 50-minute documentary, to be filmed during
2009 in Iran, UK and the United States, about Howard
Baskerville, the American teacher who was in the past beloved
in Iran for his 1909 martyrdom there in the cause of Iran's
Constitutional Revolution. The journalist, who has in the
past worked for IRNA, an official Iranian news agency, and
has visited the United States frequently, is previously known
to Poloff and is respected by Poloff's trusted Iranian
expatriate contacts. The journalist provided written details
which Poloff has forwarded to Department (ref). End Summary.


Journalist: Baskerville Story
Sets Positive Tone for Engagement
--------------


2. (S/NF) Poloff met February 18 with an Iranian free-lance
(formerly IRNA) journalist, now a UK citizen, who had
attended a February 12 Embassy-sponsored media symposium on
Iran, to hear details on the journalist's desire to promote
Howard Baskerville's centennial. The journalist described an
effective commemoration by both Iranian and U.S. audiences of
Baskerville's ideals and sacrifices as a way to help set a
positive public tone inside Iran as the two governments move
toward political engagement. The journalist said the role
American financier Morgan Shuster played in early American
support for Iranian development and independence would also
resonate with the Iranian public, but said he prefers to
start with Baskerville's more dramatic story.


3. (S/NF) The journalist, who has during his time in the UK
moved among several employers, describes himself as in theory
opposed to "velayet e faqih" but in practice is a pragmatist
who supports incremental movement toward improved bilateral
relations and more generally open government and society in
Iran. He visits Iran frequently but has lived with his wife
and children in the UK for almost ten years; he is willing to
travel to the U.S. (he has a UK passport),which he has
visited four times, to meet Department officials if requested.

Proposal's Details
--------------


4. (S/NF) The journalist gave Poloff a three-page written
grant proposal to support the making of a 50-minute
documentary, to be filmed over two months in Iran, UK, and
the United States; Poloff forwarded the document and
identifying information on the journalist to Department (ref)
proposal. Project cost would be 30,000 pounds sterling (USD
45,000 at current rates) - he was adamant this would cover
all costs of filming in UK, Iran and U.S. and that total film
and production time would take two months from project
approval. Further details:

-- Other Personnel: He told Poloff he has film editors,
cameramen, script writer, and research assistants already in
mind, and probably available, but says he has not yet, for
security reasons, discussed the project with anyone other
than VOA contractor XXXXXXXXXXXX;

-- Language: the documentary would be shot in both Persian
and English according to interviewee and dubbed as
appropriate; he wants not to rely on subtitles, and to have
two versions (English and Persian) of the work;

-- Sources: the journalist said he has located numerous
contemporary memoirs and other unpublished sources on
turn-of-the-century Iran, in addition to the well-known
historical treatments of Baskerville, that he argued could
enrich the documentary's account of Baskerville's life and of
U.S.-Iranian relations during that era. He provided as an
example verbal background on one multi-volume set of Iranian
contemporary memoirs he had traced from Iran and the UK to
the Bryn Mawr College library. Poloff asked the journalist
to provide, in support of the proposal, further written
details on sources and locations he proposes to use in
filming the U.S. portion; Poloff will report these when
available.

-- Dissemination/public broadcast: would primarily be via VOA
Persian; the journalist commented VOA is in his view at risk
of being trounced in the Iranian market by BBC Persian's
freshness and appeal to younger Iranian viewers, but his
political and news coverage sympathies appear to lie with
VOA. He said VOA can improve its format and programming and
increase its impact by imitating much of what BBC Persian is
doing. The journalist is very much against trying to
disseminate any Baskerville materials via BBC Persian: he
argued BBC would resist such a report, as being on an
inherently anti-British theme. He also opined the BBC would
not in any case touch anything with USG fingerprints or more
generally anything they had not controlled from the outset.

-- Security/regime repression: The journalist, who travels to
Iran periodically, did not volunteer but was, in response to
questions, adamant he could shoot all necessary Iranian
footage by contracting a private Iranian firm (which he did
not name) to handle the Iran filming. He said the work in
Iran would be a project internal to Iran, with no foreign
component or application; he was confident he would not need
to engage regime authorities on the project, thereby avoiding
any need for political clearance or formal permitting. The
journalist made it clear he would not be sharing complete
information with his Iran contractor and he was confident
neither they nor others in Iran would ask any questions as
long as the true nature of the project was not signaled.
Poloff made it clear USG could not be his advocate in the
event he fell afoul of Iranian authorities. The journalist
said he was willing if necessary to travel to Washington to
discuss his proposal with Department officials.

Comment
--------------


5. (S/NF) Poloff would usually dismiss such an approach as a
possible IRIG provocation or manipulation, but believes this
proposal merits USG consideration. Poloff has observed this
individual, in many London settings public and private over
the last two years, has utterly lacked the rhetorical markers
and "regime talking points" approach normally seen among
those many Iranian residents of the UK easily identifiable as
IRIG supporters or minions. Additionally this journalist is
(not embraced but) trusted by long-term Embassy contacts
among the Iranian expatriate community, a group which is not
shy about "outing" IRIG sympathizers. Above all, however,
his proposal promotes an historical episode (Baskerville)
which offers IRIG propagandists little if any angle to spin
or exploit: the unvarying anti-U.S. narrative mined by regime
propagandists rarely reaches back before the 1953 Mossadegh
overthrow, precisely because of the mostly benign themes
reflected in U.S.-Iran relations during that period.
Pre-1953 is a period in which regime propagandists tend to
focus on Russian or UK perfidy, and not on America's role.

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LEBARON