Reuters to appear in Tehran court

29 September 2012 | 19:58 Code : 1907384 Latest Headlines

Reuters will appear in a court hearing in Tehran over a complaint filed by a group of female Iranian martial artists against the London-based news agency over defamation charges, Press TV reports.

The hearing will be held at a penal court in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Sunday.

Young Iranian girls training in Ninjutsu filed defamation charges against Reuters in February for describing them as “assassins.”

Reuters showed a number of Iranian girls training in martial arts in a city near Tehran, claiming Iran was training more than 3,000 female ninjas to kill any possible foreign invaders. The distorted Reuters report was picked up by other British media outlets.

The London-based news agency also accused the Iranian government of training killers for hire.

Following the strong reaction of Iranian media to the report, Reuters made changes to parts of the report after a long delay. It refused to apologize for slander.

The Iranian girls, accused by Reuters of being assassins, say the damage has already been done and they are now taking legal action against the agency for defamation of character.