Jailed Newsweek Journo Confessed to Conspiracy: Iran

A Newsweek reporter who was arrested in Iran last month has confessed to filing "biased" news reports to stir unrest as part of a conspiracy to undermine the country's government, according to Iranian state-run media. Maziar Bahari made the alleged confession at a press conference Tuesday, Bloomberg reports. "As a reporter and a part of the West’s capitalistic engine, I was put on the path of creating rumors towards a colored revolution," Bahari is alleged to have said in his confession.

Newsweek called the report "preposterous," saying that Bahari has never shown a hint of bias in his many years of reporting. Reporters Without Borders says other journalists have been paraded on state-run TV confessing to doing the bidding of Western governments, all using identical words. The Canadian-Iranian citizen was arrested June 21 and has not been allowed to see a lawyer. (More Iran stories.)