ZIONIST SYSTEM CONTROLS NEWS CHANNELS

Teheran, 20 Rabiul Awwal 1434/ 01 February 2013 (MINA) – Following a new round of attacks against the Iranian media, the Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Dr. Mohammad Sarafraz, says 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,” Sarafraz said during a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of Iran’s Spanish-language news channel, Hispan TV, in Tehran on Wednesday.

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“If a news channel comes and it is an alternative news channel, then the Zionist system wants it removed,” he added, according to PressTV report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA), Friday.

The event comes after 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.

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The IRIB vice president denounced the move as a violation of freedom of speech and said, “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,” Sarafraz pointed out.

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.”

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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. (T/P01/E1).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)