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Censorship

One-way propaganda
Banning Hizbollah TV

Dariush Abadi
December 21, 2004
iranian.com

Is it not ironic that the world protests against Iran's continual banning of satellite feeds from abroad, going as far as sending static waves to block the satellite feeds, while the United States bans satellite feeds from the Middle East that are against its interests?

Recently the United States and France banned the satellite feeds of Al-Manar, the channel of the Hizbollah organization. They rejected claims of "banning free speech and expression." They made the claim that Hizbollah is inciting hatred and violence in the Middle East.

The same could be said about the Iranian opposition satellite stations broadcasted from Los Angeles. They incite hatred against the religion of the people of Iran (Islam), they incite hatred against the clergy most of whom are the biggest victims of the Islamic Republic. Some also incite violence by asking people to go into the streets and start a revolution (some call for peaceful revolutions, while others are calling for more violent ones).

The same way that Al-Manar calls for an armed struggle against Israel, some of these opposition Iranian satellites are called for confrontation with the Baseej and Pasdaran forces in Iran.

Their is a huge double standard here. Why can't Iran ban these satellite stations that are against her interests, while the United States and France can easily ban the broadcasts that don't even directly affect it.

The broadcasts of Al-Manar does not affect any domestic calm in France of the US. However, the blatant biased and reactionary satellite feeds from L.A. threaten the integrity and independence of Iran.

I think if the United States and France have the right to ban Satellite feeds, so should Iran. No one should complain about Iran's ban, if they don't complain about the US and French ban.

If you want freedom of speech, you have to tolerate the free speech of your opponents as well. You can't have double standards.

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