Tehran, Feb 9 (IANS): Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said the Iranian media should take on the "absolute and immediate duty" to confront what he called the Western media's invasion.

Khamenei made the remarks on Tuesday during a meeting with the Iranian Air Force Commanders, according to Khamenei's website.

He added that the definite policy of the Western media hostile to Islam and Iran is to distort the realities through telling "professional lies".

The top Iranian leader accused the Western media of trying by all means to distort the realities of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and its founder, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while denying the revolution's advancements and positive aspects.

He said media dictatorship is a type of despotism set up and used by Western powers despite their claimed freedom of speech, which is evident in the removal of Qassem Soleimani's name from major social media platforms, Xinhua news agency reported.

Soleimani, former Commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, was assassinated by the US with a drone strike near the Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Khamenei called on all Iranians, particularly the officials of the state media and media outlets owners, to report the country's true realities and achievements to counteract the enemy's tactics.