Iran jamming exile satellite TV

Iran Focus: London, Jul. 13 – The Iranian government has jammed the signals of a major Persian-language satellite television, a spokesman for the channel, Simaye Azadi, said. “In Blatant violation of ITU [International Telecommunication Union”> regulations, the Iranian regime is sending out illegal jamming signals to censor our broadcasts from Iranians inside and outside Iran”, spokesman Behruz Pirhosseini said. Iran Focus

London, Jul. 13 – The Iranian government has jammed the signals of a major Persian-language satellite television, a spokesman for the channel, Simaye Azadi, said.

“In Blatant violation of ITU [International Telecommunication Union”> regulations, the Iranian regime is sending out illegal jamming signals to censor our broadcasts from Iranians inside and outside Iran”, spokesman Behruz Pirhosseini said.

“This new wave of satellite disturbance started on July 9, which was the day of the sixth anniversary of the student uprising in Iran”, Pirhosseini added.

He was referring to the student-led anti-government protests in 1999 which were violently suppressed by the clerical regime’s forces.

Iran has a pattern of jamming satellite signals. An independent investigation by Britain’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) in Worcesteshire confirmed that the television station was being jammed by a carrier wave in the Chamestan region of the Caspian Sea. DERA is affiliated to the British Ministry of Defence.

The Iranian government had previously jammed Simaye Azadi’s signals on PanAmSat, AsiaSat, Arabsat, and Eutelsat (W3 and Hotbird) carriers in June and August of 1997, June of 1998, March of 1999, and October of 2000, according to Pirhosseini.

Iran has even used third parties to jam satellite broadcasts in the past. In July 2003, Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of Voice of America’s Board of Governors, took the unusual step of publicly condemning the Cuban government for jamming all U.S. broadcasts into Iran. He denounced “deliberate and malicious” efforts “to block Iranian audiences from gaining access to truthful news and information.”

Pirhosseini said that ever since Iranians inside the country heeded an opposition call for a mass boycott of Iran’s Presidential elections in June, the Iranian government had resumed its efforts to jam the broadcast.

He also said that on previous occasions the Iranian government used microwave technology to jam satellite signals in large cities in Iran and continues to do so, though the method could only ensure that broadcasts were jammed in local regions and was a serious health hazard.

The latest efforts to censor the opposition television channel were targeting one of its several broadcasting frequencies, though they were effectively blocking the signal in many parts of Iran, as well as Europe, North America, the Middle East, and large parts of the Asian subcontinent, he added.

“They are censoring our right to free speech and rights of Iranians to unfiltered news”.