Has anyone been to Isfahan (Esfahan) in Iran. Trying to think of somewhere to go for a visa run and holiday and was thinking of doing the Istanbul-Tehran train and then a few days in Isfahan. Has anyone else made a similar journey, is it a good trip?

WHAT??? you want to go where??? do you have any idea what's going on in that part of the world?

Are you writing an adventure book??
What is your nationality? Do you realize that Iran is 'off-limits' to some nationalities?

And if you're in Istanbul, do you have ANY idea how far away Iran is??? Turkey is a
huge country...it would take you about 24 hours just to get to Diyarbakir by bus...

Go to Georgia, why don'tcha? Go to Cyprus...Go anywhere safe...


A_G

I am a journalist working in Istanbul who spends every day trawling through the situation in the Middle East and have spent a fair amount of time in Central Asia, Gaza, West Bank, Israel, Syria (was supposed to go to southern Lebanon for reporting on war but management indecision and expense cost meant i missed that boat), working on getting out to southern Afghanistan at the moment for reporting but waiting on big boss decisions. I know what is going on in Iran but also know from experience there is a big difference between media image and reality in that area of the world. I am a British citizen which i know would cause some problems but if i get stuck there are ways round it through the news agency i work for as we have people reporting out of Iran. Also the journey is part of the interest for me, i can just fly there if i want to spend more time in Iran.

The train, how ever far it is going east, takes extremely long, like 2 days to get to Iran? My Iranian friends however tell me Isfahan is a very interesting place and they have been trying to get me to go for 20 years now. I will go one day, but just not now.

i read in an earlier post that you work for Ihlas...

for the past few years i have edited their annual reports in english.
i have NEVER, in 10 years, come across more out and out lies in an annual report
as i found in their...
years ago i edited a biology book they were publishing...i'm a biologist (my first
degree is in biology anyway)...they had such a twisted way to write about biological
processes...and there was NO mention of evolution...it was bizarre.

how long have you worked for these guys??

A_G

So you are saying they are not to be trusted if he got in trouble?

I've got a book you may be interested in reading if you go.

http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/ne ... =8&id=5198

I have worked for them for about a year an a half. I know about Ihlas bias and their approach through there domestic media and the questionable journalistic quality of their domestic publications. I work in the international video news department of Ihlas Haber Ajansı which is mainly dealing with international news (i.e news originating from the foreign correspondents and bureaus, mainly in the middle east) going to international clients and has a very different approach to the news. For starters it is hard to lie about video and also we would never sell anything if we tried to peddle blantant lies to CNN or BBC. Most of the company bias seems to come across more in what they report on and what they dont such as the lack of coverage of Kurds from our correspondents in northern Iraq. The company background is Sunni Islamist but the international news department has a number of foreigners working for it so personally i think the religious influence is diluted by international market. I personally dont think highly of papers like Turkiye in terms of quality.

you seem to have a good balance on things at your workplace.

one of the WORST papers in turkey has to be Zaman...they are so slanted, that
it's hard to imagine that they can stand up!!

but are they any worse than FOXspews??

i guess every country has their 'wingers'...

A_G