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SV: Demonstrators some in wheel chairs including women carrying banners
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MV: Demonstrators carrying placards denouncing BBC and America with posters. (4 shots)
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SV: Crowd carrying portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini and placards with slogans
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MV: Demonstrators carrying placards saying "Long live the British People" marching through chanting crowd outside United State Embassy. (2 shots)
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MV: Governor General of Khuzestan province Admiral Ahmad Madani speaking in Farsi at news conference.
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Iranian authorities on Monday (17 December) ordered Time Magazine's two Teheran correspondents to leave the country and bitterly criticised western reporting on the situation in Iran. The decision to expel the two journalists followed a large demonstration in Teheran on Sunday (16 December demanding an end to alleged biased reporting by western newsmen.

SYNOPSIS: Five thousand Iranians took to the streets of Teheran to protest against what they called biased reporting and to support the government's renewed policy of expelling foreign journalists whose stories they say are biased. Several United States services and publications as well as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) came under fire. Iranian National Television has refused to transmit BBC film to London and officials refuse to lift the ban despite an appeal by the Director of Foreign Press, Abolqasem Sadeq.

On the issue of Time Magazine, however, Sadeq remained uncompromising. He said the magazine had done nothing but arouse hatred. The expulsion of two correspondents effective closes down Time's Teheran bureau. This latest action illustrates the rift between Iran and the United States which was not immediately solved when the former Shah left for Panama.

On Sunday, Admiral Ahmad Madani, the Governor General of Iran's Khuzestan province, told a news conference that the government would not cease its efforts to have the former Shah returned to Iran for trial and punishment.

Iran's Foreign Minister Sadeq Qotbzadeh reacted by saying the former Shah's departure for Panama is a victory for the Iranian people and indicated that at least some of the 50 Americans held at the occupied U.S. embassy in Teheran might be released before Christmas (25 December), and none of the hostages would have to stand trial, but would instead be required to give evidence as witnesses. However their student captors insisted the hostages would be tried as spies and promptly ruled out any early release.