BBC CENSORS CENSORSHIP: BBC censors European censorship of Iranian Press TV and Hispan TV

BBC censors European censorship of Iranian Press TV and Hispan TV

Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Dr. Mohammad Sarafraz, criticizing European censorship of Iranian media and declaring that the Zionist system controls all the mainstream news channels in the world: ““Because they [the Zionist system] want to proceed with their own economic agendas, they have to control people’s thoughts and they achieved this by controlling the largest news channels throughout the world. If a news channel comes and it is an alternative news channel, then the Zionist system wants it removed… The US talks about being the biggest advocate of human rights, free speech and democracy, yet it supported dictators and kings of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. It is worried about losing power in the Middle East especially since many of its allies such as [ousted] Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia’s dictator bin Ali and others have been removed from power.”

According to Iranian Press TV: “the Spanish government ordered Madrid’s regional government to stop Hispan TV's broadcast as of January 21 in another blow to freedom of speech. Hispan TV, along with Iran's 24-hour English-language news channel, Press TV, have been already targeted by Hispasat's fellow European satellite providers Eutelsat and Hotbird. Hispasat is partly owned by Eutelsat, whose French-Israeli CEO is blamed for the recent wave of attacks on Iranian media in Europe… The ban on Press TV and Hispan TV in Spain followed a similar move by France's Eutelsat company, which had already taken several Iranian satellite channels and radio stations off the air, claiming that the channels were removed because of “a wider interpretation of EU regulations. Eutelsat SA and Intelsat SA, which stopped the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels in October, 2012, have cited pressure by the European Union as the main reason. The EU has, however, denied the claims by the European satellite companies.” [1].

European mainstream media including the UK BBC have censored this European censorship of Iranian media. Thus a search of the UK BBC for “hispan TV” yields 2 articles about the launch if the medium but no report of its subsequent censorship (see BBC Search [2]: http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/?q=%22hispan%20TV%22&search_form=in-page-search-form ) . While the BBC has not reported the Hispan TV censorship itself, the BBC search picks up a TMCnet-quoted Press TV report about the suspension “IRAN'S HISPAN TV TAKEN OFF AIR: Satellite and production services GlobeCast, a subsidiary of France Telecom, has suspended the broadcast of Iran's Spanish-language Hispan TV on an SES satellite in Latin America, Press TV has reported. "GlobeCast has received letter from SES dated March 29, 2013 requesting GlobeCast to cease transmission of all IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) channels on April 8, 2013," GlobeCasts said. The decision was taken after the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in February added the IRIB and its president Ezzatollah Zarqami to the 'Specially Designed Nationals List' to whom "it is prohibited to provide any support, including any service, the letter added” [2].

A search of the pro-Zionist, US lackey, genocide-ignoring and holocaust-ignoring Australian ABC (the taxpayer-funded Australian equivalent of the UK BBC) for “hispan TV” yields zero (0) results [4}. The Australian ABC has an appalling record of censorship of views critical of Apartheid Israel or the US Alliance and a disgusting record of censorship of the views of anti-racist Jews [5, 6].

[1]. Press TV, “Zionist system controls world mainstream news channels: IRIB VP”, 31 January 2013: http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/01/31/286545/zionists-system-controls-news-channels/ .

[2]. BBC Search for “hispan TV”: http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/?q=%22hispan%20TV%22&search_form=in-page-search-form .

[3]. TMCnet : http://middleeast.tmcnet.com/news/2013/04/12/7059247.htm .

[4]. ABC Search for “hispan TV”: http://search.abc.net.au/search/search.cgi?query=%22hispanTV%22&sort=&collection=abcall_meta&form=simple .

[5]. “Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat .

[6]. “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ .