'Anti-Western' Ahmadinejad permits Chris De Burgh to perform in Tehran

Yesterday, Reuters reported that pop-musician, Chirs De Burgh, is going to perform live in Tehran in early summer next year with the Iranian pop-music band, Arian.

Arian's manager, Mohsen Rajabpour, who runs a record label in Tehran, has said to Reuters that the ministry of Culture has approved of the performance and has officially given the license for the performance.

This is hugely significant in that it is the first time Iranian state is officially allowing a 'Western' non-Iranian pop-music act to happen and also because it is Ahmadinejad's government that is behind that.

So you would expect this to be at least covered by those media outlets which have always been interested in showing how Iran treats the 'Western' culture, etc.

But surprisingly enough, the news has not been covered at all in the British-funded BBC Persian, US-funded Radio Farda or Dutch-funded Radio Zamaneh. I wonder if it is just a matter of accident or it has political reasons.

It's not a secret that these media outlets are usually giving a big amount of time and space to reports about Ahmadinejad's alleged anti-Western actions and rhetoric. But ignoring such an important development is just strange.

Is it because they are not comfortable to report on something that counters their ideological discourse that Ahmadinejad is turning Iran into Taliban?