P 191631Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY LONDON
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1433
INFO IRAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

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. 
 
Visit London's Classified Website: 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Unit ed_Kingdom 
 
LEBARON