Published on Mar 1, 2013
The Zionists lobby has deemed PressTV unacceptable viewing for American eyes. They fear a dangerous truth , it's time to FIGHT BACK.
Britain took a key communications arm of the Iranian state off the airwaves on Friday when Press TV, a satellite news channel, lost its broadcasting licence.
Ofcom, the UK regulator, took this decision after Press TV repeatedly broke the broadcasting code.
In 2009, the channel showed an interview with Maziar Bahari, a "Newsweek" journalist, who had been jailed in Tehran while covering mass protests against a disputed presidential election.
Mr Bahari said this interview had been conducted under duress and his captors had threatened him with execution unless he gave the answers he wanted. Last year, Ofcom imposed a fine of £100,000 on Press TV, reversing an earlier decision to revoke the channel's licence.
As part of the investigation into this incident, Ofcom found that editorial decisions governing the channel were taken in Tehran. It wanted Press TV to be under the editorial control of the same company in London that held the broadcasting licence. Alternatively, the licence could have been transferred to Tehran.
An Ofcom spokesman said that Press TV failed to agree to these proposals, and that consequently its licence had been revoked. This decision was "not taken lightly," he added, and only a handful of licences had been taken away in the eight-year history of Ofcom.
So far, Press TV has also failed to pay the fine of £100,000, ignoring a deadline of 5 January, although Ofcom said this was not the reason for the withdrawal of its licence. BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster, has been ordered to drop Press TV from its network in the UK.
Press TV said the decision amounted to a "clear instance of censorship"
The media ban on Press TV and Hispan TV violates the people's right to choose and amounts to intellectual sabotage, says an Iranian academic. "In fact, depriving the international community of these channels is stripping the people across the globe of the choice to hear. It is not 'kosher' and amounts to an act of intellectual abacination," Ismail Salami wrote in an article on the Press TV website Sunday.
He added that the negative consequences of the ban on Iranian channels were not limited to Iran, saying Press TV and Hispan TV "are the inalienable rights of the world citizens who are entitled to have an alternative voice different from theirs and choose to hear."
Salami, who has authored several books and hundreds of articles, went on to underline the fact that European governments favor "media blackout" in a bid to cover up realistic news about their faltering economy.
Spain's satellite provider Hispasat has taken Press TV and Hispan TV off the air and ordered Overon, another satellite company, to stop the transmission of the two international TV channels.
Overon says the ban on Press TV and Hispan TV follows a similar move by France's Eutelsat company, which has already taken several Iranian satellite channels and radio stations off the air. It says the channels will be removed because of "a wider interpretation of EU regulations."
Salami stated that both channels have been playing a significant role in "raising intellectual awareness and political insight" to the dismay of Europe.
"These channels hold a mirror to the European audience wherein the reality is reflected as it should. And this is exactly what harrows Europe with fear and wonder," wrote the prominent academic.
Posted By: Steve Williams
Friday, May 10th 2013 at 5:19PM
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