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The British Broadcasting Corporation has been living off its reputation, hard-won in World War II, for the better part of a century.  While the government corporation is still able to produce compelling costume dramas and other fiction with good results, its news operations consistently are hostile to Israel, and soft on Muslims.

The latest example is startling, and cimes from – of all places -- the Huffington Post and progressive Muslim writer Yashar Ali:

The BBC has agreed to conditions set by the Islamic Republic of Iran to not share reporting materials it gathers in Iran with its Persian-language channel, BBC Persian, an internal email obtained by HuffPost reveals. The agreement represents a capitulation to a government that has been hostile to press freedom. The Iranian government routinely shuts down media organizations critical of the regime and imprisons, tortures and executes journalists.

The agreement was made with the Iranian government in exchange for Iran allowing a BBC correspondent into the country, and, according to emails that HuffPost obtained, it’s not the first time the British broadcaster has agreed to such terms.

The email, sent Saturday to all BBC Persian staff by a BBC Persian digital editor, said that BBC foreign correspondent Martin Patience and his team were in Iran “and due to leave on Sunday.”

The email goes on to say, “It is absolutely imperative that none of their material is run on BBC Persian TV, Radio or Online now or in the future. That includes any official BBC Persian social feed retweeting or forwarding the coverage. Please do not use the material and stories produced in Iran on any platform or in any format.”

It’s unclear who at the BBC agreed to the exclusivity terms.

AT readers may be reminded of CNN’s agreements with Cuba and Saddam-era Iraq to keep their correspondents in those regimes safe in return to capitulation on their journalistic integrity. Now, the BBC has lowered itself to the level of a third rank cable news outfit.