Document:Press TV CEO response to Ofcom

The response by the CEO, Dr. Mohammad Sarafraz, to Ofcom's decision to ban Press TV from the UK air waves

 open letter  by Mohammad Sarafraz  to Ofcom dated 2011-12-28

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Subjects: Banning of Press TV
Source: Press TV

Britain’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) imposed a £100,000 fine on Press TV for what it calls the breach of the regulator’s rule. Ofcom has also decided to remove the Iranian English-language news channel from the Sky platform under the pretext that Press TV made administrative errors in its application for a license in 2007.

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The response of Press TV’s CEO, Dr. Mohammad Sarafraz, to the Ofcom decision

This letter is written in response to your government-controlled organization’s decision to ban Press TV’s broadcast in a desperate effort to silence an alternative voice in the UK.

Your decision to remove Press TV from the Sky platform was made after confidential documents from the US Embassy in London about Washington and London’s concerted effort to block Press TV in Britain were leaked.

It is evident that the British government’s campaign against Press TV has its roots in the channel’s extensive coverage of the multiple crises created by London’s domestic and foreign policies.

Press TV broadcast live the Israeli regime’s attack against the people of Gaza and the military invasion of the Strip. The Channel also broadcast news about the military measures of the UK in Iraq and the massacre of innocent people. Deploying forces to Iraq based on a false report is a war crime, and those who issued the order for war are war criminals.

Press TV covered the 2011 Royal Wedding from a critical angle, which highlighted its extravagant costs at a time when many Britons are suffering from great economic hardship. The channel also provided in-depth coverage of the widespread protests and the ensuing unrest that gripped Britain after the intentional killing of a black man by police in August.

Press TV has also interviewed many critics of the stance adopted by the British government vis-à-vis the revolutions in the Muslim world. London clearly sided with dictators and monarchs, and even invited the king of Bahrain for official visits and provided his regime with military assistance. These moves came at a time when Bahrain’s Saudi-backed forces were torturing and killing peaceful protesters.

Britain also signed a scandalous multi-billion-dollar military deal with Saudi Arabia in 2006 to sell state-of-the-art military equipment to one of the world’s most corrupt monarchies.

The British government with its Royal establishment has a long history of wars of aggression and support for monarchies and autocratic rulers all over the world.

In the Middle East, London orchestrated Iran’s 1953 coup in collusion with Washington to reinstate the Western-backed Shah, who was eventually overthrown by the Islamic Revolution.

In Iraq, Britain joined the illegal US invasion and occupation of the country that led to the death and displacement of millions of people.

The British monarchy also obediently followed the US into Afghanistan in 2001-another war of aggression that has yet to end despite strong opposition from the British public. A senior Afghan official recently told Press TV that the British military has also played a significant role in the production and trafficking of narcotics in Afghanistan.

In Africa, Britain is still remembered as the brutal colonial power that crushed many local communities under the boots of its soldiers for decades. Remarkably, London is now mulling direct military intervention in Somalia, where people are already under intense pressure from natural disasters and US drone strikes.

In Asia, the Royal establishment killed as many people as it needed to in order to set up its power base in the Indian Subcontinent among other regions to further its colonial exploitation.

Thousands of miles away in Latin America, Britain is still trying to superimpose its will and is moving towards a potential military confrontation with Argentina over the Malvinas Islands three decades after fighting a deadly war with Buenos Aires over the UK-occupied archipelago.

Centuries of medieval aggression by British rulers has earned London global notoriety. The latest in a string of such practices is the Royal establishment’s current war on free speech.

London has spared no effort in its years-long battle against Press TV. And Ofcom, its designated tool to control the media, is now about to revoke the channel’s broadcast license, hoping this desperate measure will prevent the British from learning the truth.

However, what the British government fails to grasp is that the truth cannot be concealed forever, and those in the UK that want to hear Press TV’s alternative voice will inevitably find a way to watch the channel of their choice. History will be unforgiving of such futile efforts to suppress free speech.

This black stain will be recorded in history along with other acts of aggression of the British monarchy.

Mohammad Sarafraz CEO, Press TV December 28, 2011