If you don't stand up to bullies and tyrants they don't just become audacious, they become arrogant, confident and more brutal as well. Ezzatollah Zarghami is one of Ahmadinejad's cronies heading the Iranian state broadcasting (IRIB). Speaking to a selected audience on Thursday, Zarghami didn't beat about the bush and without any worries, proudly admitted 'Yes, we jam satellite TV signals'.
Jamming satellite signals is against international broadcasting conventions and has a detrimental effect on the environment and the health of the citizens. Islamic Republic of Iran has been a persistent offender in jamming satellite signals for the last decade and if there was a shadow of doubt in anyone's mind that the Iranian regime is a persistent offender, surely the public admission made by the head of the IRIB on Thursday should convert any doubting Thomas to a Thomas the Believer. Yet the Iranian regime has jammed signals with total impunity. Not only broadcasters, governments, broadcasting watchdogs and trade unions alike have refused to stand up to the Iranian regime about the illegal jamming, the number of Islamic Republic propaganda channels broadcasting from commercial satellites have in fact proliferated.
When Ribal Al-Assad, the director of the Syrian opposition ODFS, was asked in the Carlton Club about the future of the Green Movement in Iran, he replied 'I have always supported the Green Movement in Iran, how can anyone not support such courageous people but one despairs at the lack of resolve by the West to stand up to the regime in Iran. One clear example being the jamming of BBC Persian and VOA Persian and how the Iranian regime has got away without any repercussions.'
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), head-quartered in Geneva, is the UN agency for information and communication technology affairs and the global focal point for governments and the private sector in developing broadcasting services. The ITU, however, seems just as incompetent as the Western governments on enforcement capabilities against Member States who contravene the international order. Seven months after the French National Frequencies Agency (ANF) appealed to the ITU to stop the Islamic Republic from blocking satellite signal broadcasts into Iran, there is still no action, except that now the head of IRIB even proudly and publicly admits they are jamming the signals.
7 comments:
If the Western democracies were genuinely interested in spreading democracy in the ME, surely they would have stood up to the Iranian regime regarding the signal jamming.
There is so much that can be done in this field it is unbelievable.
Making sure Iranian people have access to news and information is more effective than any sanctions
What Ribal Al-Assad has also correctly observed is that everytime a dictatorship gets away with breaking international laws it demoralises the population too. They conclude if the international community can not stand up to them, how can we?
So if this theocratic tyranny now flagrantly brags about breaking International law, what's the bloody International community going to do about it? What's the penalty? What's the decisive action to properly hurt and punish them? Thus far in anything, all the International community can do is pontificate - humm and haw - and then probably let China in who'll cut any deal with any Devil for the sake of influence and money!
Waybec,
just because you hate Iran and want the government to collapse doesn't mean what the do is illegal.
International law applies to international events and undertakings. It cannot overrule a country's sovereignty.
There is nothing the international community can do about Iran blocking communications in order to stop collaborators against the government.
Deal with it.
Come on, Potkin
VOA and BBC Persia represent a breach of any code regarding impartiality and objectivity.
They are two propaganda stations wasting taxpayer money to foment instability inside Iran by spreading misinformation and then like.
SZ,
Actually the international community can do a lot about it but they won't because they like Iran to be a bogey figure in the region so they can sell tehir arms to the other countries in teh region and profit from it
Nader
Though I can understand your dislike of the West, actually international community can not do much about the problem. The thing is that whatever penalties some of the western countries propose these are blocked by China, Russia or (recently) Turkey. They also may be blocked by Latin America countries (Venezuela or Brazil) or some African countries.
Do you really think that Western countries have majority in the UN or other international organizations?
Reza
But of course VOA or BBC Persia are pure propaganda but PressTV is not. How strange is that.!!
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