"Propaganda" over Iran

Paul Reynolds of the BBC is an informed and experienced correspondent. But this doesn't seem to me to help understanding of the Iran stand-off:

Britain and Iran are engaged in a propaganda battle over the 15 captured British sailors and marines.

Britain went public with coordinates to try to prove that its naval party had not gone into Iranian waters and ridiculing Iranian claims to the contrary. Iran hit back by showing the prisoners on television and interviewing the only woman in the group, Faye Turney. They had rapidly established that she was a mother, and got her to make admissions about being in Iranian waters and about how "compassionate" her captors were.

Britain had its figures but Iran had its admission.

British servicemen are being held captive in defiance of international law and are plainly being mistreated under the provisions of the Geneva Convention. So when Reynolds states further that "Britain has suggested that the Turney interview was done under duress and direction and with the promise of her release" he is presenting as a speculative hypothesis what is an obvious matter of fact. Of course the Turney interview was made under duress, by definition. She's a prisoner. Her captors are the agents of a lawless and lying regime practising piracy. Let's have a sense of proportion, please.

UPDATE: This, on the other hand, is a sensible suggestion by Timothy Garton Ash:

There is something Europe should do: flex its economic muscles. The EU is by far Iran's biggest trading partner. More than 40% of its imports come from, and more than a quarter of its exports go to, the EU. Remarkably, this trade has grown strongly in the last years of looming crisis. Much of it is underpinned by export credit guarantees given by European governments, notably those of Germany, France and Italy. According to the most recent figures available from the German economics ministry, Iran is Germany's third-largest beneficiary of export credit guarantees, outdone only by Russia and China. Iran comes second to none in terms of the proportion of German exports - in recent years up to 65% - underwritten by the German government....

So here's a challenge for the German presidency of the European Union: will you put your money where your mouth is? Or are all your Sunday speeches about European solidarity in the cause of peace and freedom not even worth the paper they are written on?

Since the defeat of Chancellor Schroeder - a man who besmirched the good name of German social democracy and was far the worst Chancellor in the noble history of the Federal Republic - Germany has been conspicuously well governed. Germany recently proposed banning travel to the EU by people linked to Iran's aggressive military programme. Chancellor Merkel ought to be receptive to our requests for help in dealing with the regime; European solidarity is a cause worth supporting and advancing.