Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks after casting vote in the presidential election at a polling station in Tehran May 19, 2017. (Xinhua/Meng Tao)
TEHRAN, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that Iranian media should take on the "absolute and immediate duty" to confront what he called the Western media's invasion.
Khamenei made the remarks during a meeting with the Iranian air force commanders, according to Khamenei's website.
Khamenei said that the definite policy of the Western media hostile to Islam and Iran is to distort the realities through telling "professional lies."
The top Iranian leader accused the Western media of trying by all means to distort the realities of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and its founder, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while denying the revolution's advancements and positive aspects.
He said media dictatorship is a type of despotism set up and used by Western powers despite their claimed freedom of speech, which is evident in the removal of Qassem Soleimani's name from major social media platforms.
Iranian people attend a gathering to mark top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani's second martyrdom anniversary in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 3, 2022. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua)
Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, was assassinated by the U.S. with a drone strike near the Baghdad International Airport on Jan. 3, 2020.
Khamenei called on all Iranians, particularly the officials of the state media and media outlets owners, to report the country's true realities and achievements to counteract the enemy's tactics.■