Iran's Press TV accuses royal family of trying to take it off-air in UK
The Guardian / Patrick Foster
15-Oct-2011

Ofcom has "succumbed to the British royal family's demands" to revoke the broadcasting licence of the Iranian state broadcaster's English-language outlet Press TV, the channel has claimed.

In a rambling statement posted on the Press TV website, the broadcaster said that officials at the media regulator, who were "influenced by powerful pro-Israeli politicians and US sympathisers", had succumbed to pressure from "members of the royal family and the government" and banned the channel from the British airwaves.

Ofcom ruled in May that the channel, the overseas voice of the Tehran government, committed a serious breach of the broadcasting code when it aired an interview with Maziar Bahari, an imprisoned Newsweek journalist. Bahari, who was held for four months, says he was interviewed under duress and forced to read from a prepared script.

When it made its ruling, the regulator indicated that the transgression was so grave that it was likely to impose either a heavy fine or the termination of Press TV's licence. Officials from the watchdog are now understood to have told the channel it has... >>>

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