Western Media Dictatorship
*By Dr. Elias Akleh*
22 October, 2012
*Countercurrents.org*
*T*he Western wars against the Middle Eastern countries, especially the
Islamic Republic of Iran, had been escalated, lately, to an unprecedented
higher level. Besides being economical, political, intelligence and
technological, the war had been escalated to include telecommunication. On
Monday, October 15th, a total of 19 Iranian satellite TV channels and radio
stations broadcasting to Europe were cut off of its Hot Bird Frequencies.
Among these channels are Press TV, Al-Alam, Jam-e-Jam 1 and 2, Sahar 1 and
2, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, Quran TV, and the Arabic-language
al-Kawthar.
Although the Iranian satellite companies have signed broadcasting contracts
that are valid until 2021, and have not breached or violated these
contracts in any way, the European satellite provider Eutelsat SA had
ordered its media services company, Arqiva, to terminate the broadcast of
the Iranian satellite channels.
Karen Badalov, the area manager of Eutelsat SA, claimed that they had
terminated the contracts upon an order from the European Commission as part
of Europe’s latest unilateral sanctions against Iran. In a separate
statement emailed to Press TV, one of the banned channels, by the head of
Public Relations Department of Arqiva, Gary Follows, stated that the
decision was made by the EU Council and repeated requests by France’s
broadcasting authority. Such order from EU came three days after the EU had
controversially won the Noble Peace Award.
Yet these claims were contradicted by Maja Kociyancic, the EU Foreign
Policy Chief Spokesperson, who denied giving such an order explaining that
late sanctions against Iran are directed against finance, trade, energy,
and transport and do not include telecommunications.
Such deniability from both parties comes to exonerate themselves from any
guilt.
Gordon Duff, senior editor of Veterans Today, stated on Press TV that a
strong background check on the source of the decision revealed that the
decision came from Eutelsat; an Israeli-owned company that runs about 25%
of the news programs in the world. The decision, he claimed, came down from
a Michelle De Rozen, an Israeli citizen, who controls Eutelsat. Duff stated
that Eutelsat in particular is a Mossad propaganda operation.
This telecommunication war is a part and parcel of a policy adopted by the
pro-Zionist American administration and its EU poodle to cover theirs and
the Israeli war crimes and flagrant violations of human rights in the
Middle Eastern and in South East Asian regions. It started in December 2004
when the US and EU banned the Lebanese pro-Hezbollah Al-Manar TV from
broadcasting into the US and Europe after being designated as a supporter
of terror and spreading hatred as stated by Richard Boucher, then, State
Department Spokesman. In September 2012 the pro-Syrian government TV
channels were banned from Arabsat and Nilesat. Now it is Iran’s turn, where
not one or two but 19 satellite channels are banned. This seems to have
become a dangerous interlude to other future such attacks on free speech.
Recently there are attacks against Russian satellite TV channels especially
those that are broadcasting alternative views of the Syrian crises
contradicting the Western narratives.
The Western countries conceitedly designate themselves as the defenders and
promoters of democracy and free speech to the point of waging devastating
wars to guarantee it. While the EU raises the flag of democracy and free
speech and claims to be a democratic organization it is completely
violating the basic tenets of freedom of speech and the basic rights of its
own citizens to receive news and to be exposed to alternative views.
It seems that this guaranteed freedom of speech is exclusive to Americans,
Europeans and Israelis, who continuously attack Islam, insult its prophet,
and burn its holy book imitating Nazi’s books burning. I wonder if Richard
Boucher would ban such hate spreading activities! Would he condemn or
praise the American judges who stated that the American First Amendment
Right to Free Speech gives the pro-Israeli hate group calling itself
American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) to sponsor the hate anti-Islamic
ads in four Washington area Metro stations, yet labeling anyone who dares
to condemn the Israeli terrorist attacks against Palestinians as hating
anti-Semite.
Banning the Iranian satellite channels is a grave breach of Article 10 of
the European Convention of the Human Rights stating that: “… it is the
peoples’ basic right to receive news and information”.
The ban also violates Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights stating that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers”.
Besides being an infringement on the rights of citizens to receive
information, the decision to ban Iranian satellite channels, causing
Utelsat to lose handsome revenue and suffer some legal ramification, is not
a good business decision. This indicates that the decision was a purely
political decision and had to come from higher sources. The main reason
behind this political decision is the fear of the Western governments to
lose control over their own citizens when their lies are exposed, and their
inability to enter into a meaningful media dialogue to discredit Iranian
news analyses broadcasts.
The Iranian news media channels, such as Press TV and Al-Alam, have been
very effective in delivering reliable and verifiable news about the Middle
East and South East Asia in particular that contradict the Western
unverifiable misinforming and brainwashing Western media outlets. When most
of the regional media channels had concentrated their attention on the
events of what has been dubbed as the Arab Spring, Iranian news channels
stayed focused on the Middle Eastern core issue of the Israeli occupation
of Palestine, the heart of the Arab World, and the core Islamic issue of
the Israeli threat to occupy, to alter, and possibly to destroy the second
Islamic holiest place; Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Iranian channels have dedicated
news analytical programs and documentaries exposing the terrorist realities
of Zionist Israel, its genocidal policies towards Palestinians especially
against Gaza Strip, such as the latest piracy crime of Israeli navy ships
against the humanitarian Estelle ship bound to Gaza, and its Mossad’s
political assassinations of Arab political figures to cause tension and to
incite sectarian conflict, such as Mossad’s latest assassination of the
Lebanese Security Chief, Wissam al-Hassan. They also expose the illegality
of the Western unconditional financial and political support to all Israeli
terrorist attacks in contradiction and violation of their own local laws
and the international laws.
The Iranian TV channels have exposed the realities on the ground of the
Syrian crises. They exposed the realities of the so-call Free Syrian Army
as composed mainly of foreign mercenaries and terrorist groups financed,
trained and armed mainly by US, UK, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
They also had broadcasted verifiable uncontested audio and video evidences
exposing the lies and misinformation presented by anti-Syrian TV channels
including the Qatari Al Jazeera, Saudi Arabian Al-Arabiya, and Arabic BBC.
Iranian news channels have the courage to tackle European and American
issues that no European or American news media want even to mention at all.
They have dealt with the realities of US and EU involvement in the wars in
Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Palestine, in Syria, in Lebanon, and their support
to terror organizations operating in these countries and especially in
terrorist attacks against Iran. They have discussed the illegality of the
American drone attacks against civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Yemen. They have talked about the corruption of Western heads of states.
They have tackled the false self-made economic crises in the US and in the
Euro zone that are designed to siphon more money to the pockets of the
richest 1% and to destroy the middle class. They were among the few TV
channels who broadcasted the public demonstrations in major European
capitals against the so-called economic austerity measures.
A major reason for the ban could be the courage of Iranian satellite
channels to criticize the unfair bias present political world system
represented by the undemocratic UN with the veto power of few countries
that had obstructed justice and blocked many resolutions that could have
solved many political issues and applied justice to many nations, among
those were the resolutions that could have condemned Zionist Israeli
occupation of Palestine and its genocidal measures against its indigenous
inhabitants.
The other Iranian satellite channels broadcast historical, cultural and
religious programs that present the Islamic Republic as a civilized country
with advanced industrial, technological, and scientific fields that
parallel and some even exceed those of the West. The Iranian movies,
sitcoms, soap operas, and social programs portray Iranian citizens as
humans like any other nation and not the extremist world threatening
terrorists Israel and the other Western governments are trying to portray
them.
Knowing other nations on the human level leads to understanding, empathy,
cooperation, and peace, something Western political heads of states are
afraid of because they could no longer control their own citizens through
lies about, and fear from the unknown others. Banning Iranian broadcast is
a form of media dictatorship intended to suppress their humanity and to
promulgate fear and hostility towards them.
Dr. Elias Akleh is a writer living in Corona, CA., eakleh_at_ca.rr.com
Obama Tells U.N. New Democracies Need Free Speech
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/world/obamas-address-to-united-nations.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/world/obamas-address-to-united-nations.html?pagewanted=all
Received on Tue Oct 23 2012 - 13:31:00 EDT
