Iranian Propaganda Channel Closed Down in Europe…Germany initiates shut down of the satellite channel, Press TV

Read more EU Censorship News at MelonFarmers.co.uk

See article from advanced-television.com

Under pressure from the German government, media censors at BLM have initaiated an action to remove Iran’s international English Channel, Press TV, from SES Astra. In an email sent to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting officials, Vice President of the SES Platforms Services, Stephane Goebel, noted that the BLM has asked Press TV be immediately removed from the platform. The authority has claimed that Iran’s English-speaking channel does not have a license for broadcast in Europe. Goebel added that his company will be no longer able to keep the Press TV signal on air and will need to shut down the service without further notice. The channel was turned of on 3rd April. Press TV has responded that the decision to remove Press TV is a flagrant breach of regulations and a disproportionate act. The channel has said that it will be demanding compensation unless transmissions are restored by April 5.

Getting Propaganda Cake and Eating It…Whingeing at UK action against Iranian Press TV whilst jamming the BBC

Read more Ofcom Watch at MelonFarmers.co.uk

See article from presstv.ir See article from online.wsj.com

Press TV have issued another propaganda peice suggesting that Ofcom are set to ban the satellite channel from broadcasting with a UK licence. Press TV writes in a website posting: London has spared no effort in its two-year-long battle against Press TV. Its media tool, Ofcom, is now about to revoke the channel’s broadcast license, hoping this desperate measure will silence criticism. And in a coincidently timed piece, the Wall Street Journal points out that Iran is regularly jamming BBC programmes targeted at Iran: As uprisings rolled across the Middle East this year, Iran stepped up its jamming of the BBC, Voice of America and other Western networks with Persian-language news channels. The move is intended to prevent Iranian audiences from seeing foreign broadcasts the Iranian government finds objectionable, five networks protested in a joint statement this month. Some 45% to 60% of Iranians watch satellite TV, according to estimates from the state media company and an Iranian research center, exceeding the number believed to use the Internet. Iran so far seems to be winning a struggle to filter out unwanted TV content and broadcast its own propaganda: The country jams channels like the BBC on Western satellites even as Iran’s state media company broadcasts pro-government news on some of the same satellites, and at times has aired forced confessions of political detainees. Iran is having it both ways, said a U.S. State Department official. While they benefit from the international community’s respect for ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘freedom of the airwaves,’ they deny that same right to their own citizens, aggressively jamming Persian-language broadcasts from other countries.

Unbelievable…Ofcom’s unenviable job of being a political censor of a foreign propaganda channel whilst not being able to admit to diplomatic input

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See article from guardian.co.uk

Ofcom has reversed its unpublished decision to revoke the broadcasting licence of Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster’s English-language outlet, as tensions rise between Britain and the Islamic republic. Ofcom had apparently told Press TV last month that it was minded to ban it from broadcasting in the UK after the channel aired an interview with Maziar Bahari, an imprisoned Newsweek journalist, taking his words seriously when in fact the interview had been conducted under duress. However, after hearing final submissions from the broadcaster, and amidst a crisis in bilateral relations that has seen Britain withdraw members of its diplomatic mission from its Tehran embassy after the building was stormed by protesters, Ofcom is understood to have downgraded the sanction to a fine of ฃ100,000. Details of the sanction are expected to be published this week. According to the WikiLeaks cables, the Foreign Office told a US diplomat in 2010 that the UK government was exploring ways to limit the operations of … Press TV. At the time, the department warned the US that UK law sets a very high standard for denying licences to broadcasters. Licences can only be denied in cases where national security is threatened, or if granting a licence would be contrary to Britain’s obligations under international law. Currently neither of these standards can be met with respect to Press TV, but if further sanctions are imposed on Iran in the coming months a case may be able to be made on the second criterion. A Foreign Office spokesman said that there had been no government intervention in the process.

Fair Comment…Ofcom finds a lack of due impartiality in George Galloway’s Comment programme

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Based on article from thejc.com

Ofcom has ruled that George Galloway repeatedly breached broadcasting standards on impartiality during a series of Press TV programmes on which he described Israel as a terrorist gangster state and a miscreant, law breaking rogue, war launching, occupying state. The media watchdog also found that Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn did not show due impartiality when he appeared on the Iranian-backed channel as a guest on Galloway’s weekly Comment show. An initial complaint against the former Respect MP and pro-Palestinian campaigner was made last February following a segment on the death of a Hamas operative in a Dubai hotel. An Ofcom investigation found that the piece was in breach of standards for inequitably representing alternative viewpoints. The regulator also found examples of breaches of impartiality in other episodes of Comment in May and June 2010, involving comments which could be interpreted as being pro-Palestinian and highly critical of the actions of the Israeli government and its military forces. Under Section 5 of the Ofcom code, broadcasters must ensure that on such programmes neither side of the debate is unduly favoured. However the report said Galloway’s show did not adequately provide the Israeli viewpoint on a programme about the flotilla incident. Investigators found that when opposing views were included the material was used only to give the opportunity for the programme to further criticise the Israeli government. In addition, it was demonstrated that Galloway treated pro-Israel viewer contributions, in a very different way to how he treated the pro-Palestinian perspective: [He] used the alternative opinions made by the viewers, which were contrary to his own, only as vehicles to punctuate what could be classed as a form of ongoing political polemic, delivered by the presenter directly to camera and unchallenged. Ofcom said it would arrange a meeting for Press TV to discuss its impartiality procedure.

Standard Claims…ASA allows ads claiming news ‘truth’ and the ‘full story’

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Based on article from asa.org.uk

A poster, for Press TV, a satellite news channel, stated Press TV giving a voice to the voiceless. 24/7 News truth. The world is changing. People are changing. Opinions are changing. The news is changing. Why do you still watch the same tired news channel? Get the full story at Press TV. Issue Four complainants challenged whether: the ad was misleading, because it did not make clear that the channel was owned by the Iranian government the claim 24/7 NEWS TRUTH the claim the full story were misleading, because they implied that the channel offered unbiased reporting of news events, which they did not believe was the case. ASA Decision: Not Upheld 1. Not upheld The ASA noted that it was not common practice for news channels to state who they were owned or funded by in their advertising material and, in not stating who the owner was, we did not consider the ad was misleading on this point. 2. Not upheld We considered that 24/7 TRUTH would be seen as the station’s opinion of the information it provided rather than an objective claim. We concluded that the ad was not misleading on this point. 3. Not upheld We noted that the website links and news footage provided by Press TV showed that there had been regular coverage of the events in Iran after the presidential election results were announced. Because Press TV had shown us that they had provided coverage of the opposition to the election results, including the post-election unrest and banned rallies, we concluded that the claim the full story was not misleading.