Maziar Bahari is originally from Tehran, but moved to Canada in 1988. He completed a degree at Concordia University in Montreal and keeps a home in Toronto. ((CBC))

An Iranian-Canadian reporter arrested in Tehran last week admitted his election coverage was biased in favour of the opposition, an Iranian government-linked news agency reported Tuesday.

Fars News Agency, a semi-official government-aligned organization, said Maziar Bahari appeared at a news conference Tuesday to discuss his situation with other reporters.

The 41-year-old was taken from his mother's Tehran apartment on Sunday by a group of men believed to be Iranian security officials. A laptop computer and several videos were also taken.

According to the article, Bahari, who was in Iran to report for Newsweek, admitted his coverage of the June 12 presidential election was biased in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

There is no way to independently confirm the report because of tight Iranian government restrictions on foreign media in the country imposed following violent anti-government demonstrations.

The report also says Bahari admits that as a journalist, he is part of capitalist machinery that gets caught up in revolutionary activities aimed at throwing the legitimacy of the election in doubt. Several other media outlets, including CNN, Newsweek and the New York Times, are feeding information in support of the revolution, he says, according to the article.

The report did not say whether Bahari remains in custody, where the reported news conference took place, or who attended.

The Canadian government has reportedly demanded to have access to Bahari.

Protesters, militia killed

At least 24 journalists and bloggers are also known to have been arrested in Iran since Iranians began protesting the official results of the presidential election more than a week ago.

Iranian authorities say 17 protesters and eight members of the volunteer Basij militia have been killed in two weeks of unrest, and hundreds of people have been arrested.

Iran's top legislative body on Monday said a partial recount had confirmed Ahmadinejad's disputed victory. The 12-member clerical council has already rejected opposition calls for it to annul the vote over charges of voting irregularities.

The Interior Ministry's initial tally of the vote handed Ahmadinejad victory by a 2-1 margin over Mousavi.