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Iran cleric protests shutdown of satellite TV |
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Monday, 26 December 2005 |
 Agence France Presse - The managers of a reformist-funded satellite
television channel are to take legal action against Iranian authorities
for allegedly banning their activities and broadcast, a company
executive said Monday.
Saba TV's managing director said they came to understand that their
station was being banned by the government days after Iranian security
agents tried to confiscate a tape from a network official at Dubai
airport.
"We realize that the Supreme National Security Council has asked the
newspapers to avoid publishing Saba TV advertisements and news of Saba
TV (and said) this network's activities are illegal in Iran," Behrouz
Afkhami said in a statement.
Afkhami said the managers intended to file a legal complaint against
Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, who has
allegedly ordered the ban.
Funded by Mehdi Karoubi, a reformist cleric and failed presidential
hopeful, Saba TV was scheduled to make its first broadcast from Dubai
at midnight Wednesday.
But when an Iranian airliner carrying Saba's production manager arrived
in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, Iranian security agents tried to
confiscate the tape and prevented him from getting off the plane,
Afkhami said.
Iran's constitution does not allow any radio or television stations to operate outside state control.
With a start-up budget of 330,000 dollars, its aim was "to provide
objective and unbiased news about Iran to Persian-speaking viewers all
over the world".
"Mr. Larijani, does your interpretation of the radio and TV monopoly
include the Persian speaking media outside Iran?" asked Afkahmi, a
well-known movie director and former reformist MP.
"How come your understanding of the law allows media activities for
British representatives and their Iranian employees, but bans the
Iranians from working for Iranians?" he said.
Saba would have been the first satellite TV to be funded by a former
Iranian official, while Iranians receive signals of more than 20
opposition-run satellite channels mainly based in the United States.
Satellite television is banned in Iran but police raids and fines have
not stopped dishes springing up like mushrooms on the roofs of homes in
the country's bigger cities.
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