Middle East Focus: Tory Press Censorship: Sanctimonious British Free Speech Moves Closer to Iranian Free Speech………

Arabia Deserta

Tory Press Censorship: Sanctimonious British Free Speech Moves Closer to Iranian Free Speech………

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

“For the first time, British government censors have banned a 24-hour news channel from British viewers. As of the afternoon, UK-time, 20th January 2012, viewers of Press TV, an avowedly anti-imperialist TV channel headquartered in Tehran and featuring many of the voices found in CounterPunch, saw the words “Channel Unavailable” when tapping their clicker. And so the war on Iran by Britain, Israel and the U.S. continues using propaganda, proxy militants and asymmetric warfare. Unlike the U.S., whose authorities have so often had to get around the first amendment to ban media from Americans, the UK has no law against the abridging of freedom of speech or against “infringing on the freedom of the press”. The decision was made by Ed Richards, previously Senior Policy Advisor to Tony Blair………”

The British government severely criticizes media censorship when it is done by others, especially Arab and Muslim states that are not West-friendly or extremely rich and good buyers of weapons. Now the Cameron government has a lot of egg on its sanctimonious face. The current government, and Tony Blair’s former appointee, must see some merit in denying free speech and free access to the media ‘when the moment is right’. In other word in this case the government has seen fit to deny the British public the right to watch this Iranian English-language network. The Iranian regime is often hypocritical in its pronouncements, but its charges that the West is hypocritical is also true. They both want to control the political message.

Maybe we won’t hear as much sanctimonious bullshit from the Cameron government about freedom.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com