Website of Kourosh Ziabari, award-winning journalist and reporter

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: U.S. President Donald Trump has called for new sanctions against Iran and proposed decertification of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran Deal. Trump has given the European signatories to the agreement, most importantly Britain, Germany and France, an ultimatum to fix the flaws in the Iran deal or forget about the United States’ continued investment in the agreement, which according to Trump, was Obama’s deal and one of the most disastrous and one-sided accords the U.S. has ever entered into. Terms and conditions of the JCPOA are clear. In a nutshell, Iran rolls back certain aspects of its ambitious nuclear programme, sticks to its technical...

Kourosh Ziabari - Centre for Journalism: What is Nowruz and how does it exactly work? It's a question asked in many different ways and many different responses have been given to it. To sum up, Nowruz (translated verbatim as "new day") is the name of the Iranian New Year and feasts and festivals associated with it. It's celebrated by some 300 million people worldwide, including in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and by Iranian diaspora in Europe and North America, Australia and elsewhere. Nowruz is the day of the vernal equinox and marks the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. It usually falls on 21st March, which is a special day, because in 1970, the first Earth Day proclamation was...

Kourosh Ziabari - Medium: There’s a lot going on about Iran in the headlines these days. Saudi Arabia finds it useful to direct timely and untimely ad hominem attacks against Tehran for its interference in the Yemeni affairs; the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations confidently lashes out at Iran in her speeches, talking about the need for the international community to condemn Iran for its destructive regional role, crackdown on human rights activists and pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile technologies. At home, people, whether those working as government employees or those running small enterprises are complaining about their situation. People of Iran by nature are never easily-satisfied and find the people in power the...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: Iran’s role in the Middle East and the region has regularly been questioned and cast into doubt. It’s mostly questioned by the critics of the country’s controversial and ambitious nuclear program and its foreign policy. Iranians will, by and large, gloss over key issues while critics of Tehran specifically cite its foreign policy as a reason to scuttle the nuclear agreement. The current Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, was widely seen as a sensible choice to run the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The truth, however, is that there are few well-trained and educated diplomats with relevant qualifications to run the Ministry. And what progress Zarif does make on the foreign stage his...

AFP Photo Kourosh Ziabari - Medium: Four people stormed the Iranian Embassy in London on Friday, 9th March and took down the Islamic Republic’s flag to give the Iranian government authorities ammunition for the escalation of tensions with the UK at a time the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is hindering the smooth and unhindered progress of bilateral relations. The attackers were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police “on suspicion of causing criminal damage and being unlawfully on diplomatic premises”. The attack was intrinsically condemned by Iran’s Foreign Ministry, and some hardliners in Tehran suggested that there is a case of negligence against the UK Police. No evidence to back up this allegation has been...

Kourosh Ziabari - openDemocracy: Nowruz has always been a very special occasion for me; a time of year when my heart beats faster than usual, when I'm more inclined to see everything through more romantic eyes. It is a time when I think about the importance of nature and why it should be preserved at the dawn of spring, while food packaging companies, nuclear power plants, oil tankers and coal mines don't agree with me; why families entrap themselves in unnecessary clashes and skirmishes throughout the year to finally use Nowruz as an opportunity for reconciliation. Nowruz, for me is an opportunity to contemplate, to ask unanswered questions and sometimes create some of my best works of journalism and writing. It is also a chance to...

Courtesy of Laura Garcia Rodriguez Blancas. Taylor Mulcahey | February 28, 2018 Each month, IJNet features an international journalist who exemplifies the profession and has used the site to further his or her career. If you would like to be featured, click here. Kourosh Ziabari grew up in the newsroom of a small, weekly magazine — Hatef — which was one of the first local magazines established in northern Iran following the 1979 revolution. His father currently works as the managing editor, and his mother is the editor-in-chief. It was in this magazine that Ziabari published his first piece when he was just 8 years old. “It opened my eyes to a world full of papers, magazines, books and stationery, and I realized...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: A Canterbury Tale is arguably a typical example of 20th century British cinema. The 1944 film co-directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger tells the story of three young people who are in search of their destiny on separate journeys. Their paths cross in a small Kent town on the road to Canterbury. They include a British Army Sergeant called Peter Gibbs, a US Army Sergeant named Bob Johnson and a Land Girl, Miss Alison Smith. Inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer’s collection of stories The Canterbury Tales, the film revolves around the theme of pilgrimage, promoting Anglo-American wartime friendship and collaboration. The coming May marks the 73rd anniversary of the screening of the...

Kourosh Ziabari - Centre For Journalim: Latvia is an independent republic in the Baltic region, bordered by Estonia, Lithuania, Russia and Belarus. It became a member of the European Union in 2004 and signed the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. Its capital Riga was named the European Capital of Culture in 2014 and the recent UN Human Rights Development Index categorises it as one of the countries with a "very high human development" score. Surpassing Argentina, Croatia, Bahrain, Montenegro, Russia, Romania and Kuwait, it's the world's 44th country in the list. The Baltic state was ruled by the Soviets for centuries (1710-1918) and World War I and World War II became motives for Latvia to fight for independence and a better international...

I must remember Not to say something that ruffles any feathers Not to give any look that shakes any heart Not to take a route, which is a detour Not to write a line, which causes offence I must remember that The days and daytime are all happy Everything is okay and fine It’s only my heart, which is not actually a heart Parviz Parastui (Photo: Cineplex.com / the man whose front view is not visible) 1- the terrible world we live in is full of irregularities. What’s the point in me complaining about them all the time when I can’t change anything, when I simply fail to correct myself, and I’m full of errors? I stopped complaining long ago, as quickly as I realised that the world is too hectic, too strange and too...

I've done my compulsory military service (conscription) in the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, acronymed NEDAJA. In an internationally-recognised military force, you learn certain values, including how to respect the commander, and how to follow his advice word by word, which occasionally turn out to be crude and uncompromising, but at the same time in your best interests. In the recent days, I've been asked many questions by many people, including some Tehran-based "journalist"s, on what I think about the imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian national who was detained in Iran in April 2016. In September 2016, she was sentenced by Iran's judiciary to five years imprisonment for plotting to overthrow the...

"China's Media Go Global" is the latest book by the University of Westminster's Daya Thussu, which has just been published and is out now. Co-edited with Professor Hugo De Burgh and Professor Anbin Shi of Tsinghua University, the collection "brings together distinguished scholars from China and those with deep interest and knowledge of the country, to examine how the emergence of Chinese media will impact on global media and communication." The book is published by the Routledge. Daya Thussu is a Professor of International Communication and Co-Director of the India Media Centre based at the University of Westminster. His previous publications include the 2015 book "Mapping BRICS Media" and the 2013 book "Communicating India's...