UK mobilizes offshoots to kill Press TV

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184061.html

The British government has mobilized all its communications and media facilities in a desperate attempt to force Iran's English language news channel Press TV off-air.

The facilities in question include the pro-Zionist newspaper The Sunday Times and other right-wing media outlets. Also contributing to the attempt is the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the so-called media regulatory body whose managers are directly installed by the Queen and have to report to the monarchy.

Ofcom has been instructed to mount pressure on Press TV with the help of Zionist media giant Rupert Murdoch's newspaper, The Sunday Times. The paper recently published a politically motivated article to distort facts about Press TV and put more pressure on the Iranian news channel.

Press TV Ltd. is a British production company which is making programs critical of Western imperialism. Its partner in Tehran, sheds light on the dark, undemocratic aspects of the British political structure, especially the hereditary rule of the royals. It also lays bare London's double standards toward Middle East developments and their links with Britain's historical presence in the region.

Press TV's regular coverage of crimes committed by the Israeli regime in the occupied Palestinian territories are definitely among the strict red lines that British media policy-makers will not easily tolerate.

Outgoing Israeli ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, once wrote in The Daily Telegraph that “Britain is increasingly becoming a hotbed of anti-Israeli sentiment. Attitudes once considered marginal or extreme have drifted dangerously close to the mainstream.”

The WikiLeaks website also published cables of the US State Department, in which the British Foreign Office had told the US embassy in London, back in February 2010, that it was "exploring ways to limit the operations of… Press TV."

Therefore, the previously secretive campaign to halt Press TV's work is finally out in the open.

The disputed article published in The Sunday Times was written by Dipesh Gadher, 36, who considered himself a judge.

Before providing any facts, Gadher described Press TV as the “domestic enemy,” accusing the news channel of broadcasting unfair images of Britain.

Gadher, who became the deputy news editor at the paper in 2008, also accused Press TV of adopting non-professional news-writing regulations.

While, Gadher has ignored the definite rules of free and fair journalism, he stopped short of giving the readership any documented facts for his claims against Press TV.

Presenting fake statistics and distorting the documented facts on Press TV are visible all through his politically motivated article.

The administrative documents could easily dismiss Gadher's claims that Press TV's British presenter George Galloway is paid 25,000 pounds a month and that Press TV Ltd. -- a firm which makes programs for the Iranian channel -- had £2.7 million in savings.

Gadher claimed that Press TV's programs are politically motivated and risk the reputation of the British government, whereas many critics believe Press TV's coverage of the events, including the crackdown of student protests in London in early 2011, is balanced, unbiased and based on the facts on the ground.

The article also criticized Press TV over a public opinion poll about the royal wedding. The results of the poll revealed that 65 percent of people felt the royal wedding was an unnecessary official expense imposed on UK tax-payers.

Gadher has ignored the fact that by criticizing the poll, it has criticized those Press TV readers who participated in the survey, simply for expressing their opinions.

All this comes as British authorities have failed in their efforts to point to any problems with the quality or content of programs broadcast by Press TV.

The WikiLeaks report clearly shows that the British government has no other way but to seriously disrupt press TV's activities in Britain.

In line with this scenario, the London-based National Westminster Bank, Commercial Banking office froze the business accounts for Press TV Ltd. in April without any prior notice, claiming the accounts would be permanently closed in February 2011.

Reports also indicate that the staff at Press TV Ltd. have been intimidated and threatened by members of the anti-Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group in London.

The British government has, however, does not seem to have taken any measures to stop the intimidation, and threats continue on the part of the MKO forces.

Press TV's website has carried out a survey, based on which a majority of almost 6600 respondents believe the UK government is bent on silencing the news network for its reports exposing London's misguiding policies.

According to the survey, 77.82 percent of the participants believed that the primary objective behind the Britain's intensifying pressure on the Iranian news network is to silence the broadcaster because it sheds light on the dark side of British policies.

A total of 15.16 percent of the survey respondents also said the UK is attempting to discredit the channel in the eyes of international public opinion.

The remaining 7.2 percent participants said the UK seeks to remove Press TV from Sky platform or impose a punitive fine on the channel.

Britain has long been playing a destructive role in Iran, an example of which is the true extent of its involvement in the 1953 coup that toppled the country's democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddeq and replaced it with the tyranny of Pahlavi regime.

The state-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) played a central role in that coup as evidenced by the documents.

In 2008, BBC launched a Persian channel, BBC Persian Television, which is critical of the Islamic Republic's establishment and its policies. Yet, the British government cannot tolerate a tiny but heavyweight English news channel airing from Tehran.