BBC Persian's new casualty

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BBC Persian's new casualty
by News Goffer
05-Feb-2009
 

I wrote earlier about the IRI’s announcement that BBC Persian TV is not authorized to station its crew in Iran, nor are the long-standing BBC Tehran office team allowed to contribute in any way to the new television station’s content generation--or else!

It seems the price the British government must pay for starting that TV station is increasing, now extending to the closure of offices of the British Council in Tehran , suddenly pronounced as “illegal” by IRI authorities.

I talked to my friends in Tehran .  It seems like everyone’s watching BBC Persian television these days, with the station’s programs quickly replacing the long-held “most popular” standing of VOA Persian television among other satellite TV stations.

I understand the Iranian government’s unhappiness with the BBC’s increasing and now extensive “footprint” in Iran, specially as so many believe that the BBC (radio) played a big role in the advent of Islamic Republic of Iran.  It is baffling, however, to think that the British Council had been operating in Iran for all these years and not a peep out of the gentlemen on the subject until, wham!, the British Council is “illegal!?”  Obviously, that didn’t stop them from having offices in Gholhak for all these years!

It would be interesting to watch the relations between Tehran and London over the upcoming months prior to Iranian elections.  I'm sure BBC Persian television will have a lot to say about that, and I don’t think we have seen the end of this drama yet.

Watch //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7871160.stm].  Martin Davidson, the British Council’s chief executive talks to the BBC about the British Council offices' closure in Tehran.

Source:  //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7872525.stm

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more from News Goffer
 
MRX1

Amir kabir you are a genious

by MRX1 on

It's no wonder British and their lackeys killed you in Kashan.


Iranian Reader

Totallly, Amir Kabir, totally...

by Iranian Reader on

I believe every word you say. I think the accurate situation of the world right now is the sum total of every "conspiracy theory" there is. I am not kidding. I think imagination rules the world both in perverse and sublime ways.

Kick out the British? What good did kicking out the Americans do? Or the kicking out of the Russians in Afghanistan? No. The answer is to imagine something that soars above what they can imagine -- see Vohu Mana ("Good Mind") in Ari Siletz's piece about Bijan and Manijeh. Love and forgiveness is one manifestation of vohuman, another is a certain kind of unbridled imagination.


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Grain of salt

by Amir Kabir while clipping his nails (not verified) on

All reactions by the IRI should be taken with a grain of salt and their hidden agendas.

One of the functions of the IRI is to popularize the British among Iranians, so that the nation relies less and less on feedback from other western countries. It is to IRI advantage if Iranians listen to BBC rather than Radio Israel, VOA, or Al-Jazira. The British government is the maternal protectorate of the Islamic Republic and historically the British have been more pro Shiet Islam than the Iranians, hence "more Catholic than the Pope"! Indeed they know far more about Islam than anyone of us can make such claim.

In order to attract more viewers and to convey the message to the Iranians that the British government is not behind the entire infrastructure of the IRI, they once again rely on these little cat and mouse games created by sidewalk peddlers on the British payroll in Tehran and the idea of let's close the British Council so that no one suspects anything.

You must have noticed that every time I encourage Iranians to attempt closing of the British Embassy in Tehran or close their consular offices in other cities, then in no less than a month you will see a reaction in Tehran! Either a demonstration in front of their embassy or some other little games. But we are no longer going to be fooled.

What we want is total expulsion of all British subjects out of Iran, regardless of diplomat or not, all British out of Iran. In fact the only time it might be worth listening to the BBC is when we successfully kick every single one of them out of Iran and cancel billions of dollars of trade contracts and stop free flow of oil and gas to that country. The BBC will give objective news! Objective my ass.

If Iran has such power to send satellites to the space (Islamic Sputnik) then why can't they beam jamming wavelength or similar methods to weaken BBC broadcasts? Although I don't think that would be a good idea as it might even encourage more listeners and viewers.

The bottom line is no matter how much the IRI on the surface acts that they are in headlock with the British government, very few Iranians will believe them. By now majority of people know that the British are the sole supporter of the IRI and with new Russo-British alliance the stage are being set for plunder of the Caspian Sea gas and other resources. Iraq belongs to US and Iran belongs to the British and Russians want their shares. As for Afghanistan, it stands to be nothing more than a farming state, producing the very valuable and necessary commodity -the opium. Western countries need opium for variety of medical needs and Eastern brothers need it for smoking and injection or insertion through seven bodily orifices.

BBC is only a drop in the sea of conspiracies and abuse by the British agents in Iran. Thousands of young Iranians died in the hands of the British agents in Iran and millions of our youths are addicted because of the narcotics imported by the British diplomats inside the "diplomatic pouches" from Afghanistan.

The British government is now spending loads of money by placing high-rated ads on Google for their broadcasts to Iran. Just about any Iranian website you visit that has a link to Google, you will notice that BBC ads are always there. They pay top dollar to attract eyeballs.

British get out of Iran today. We want the Embassy to be closed and not just the Council. Needless to say, their agents read these comments on Iranian.com and they go and advise them to take actions. Let's hope they listen, or let's hope the stupid American government wakes up and understands that their number one enemy in the Middle East are the British and not Islamic fundamentalists.


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The mullahs know!

by farrad02 on

The Mullahs know first hand what BBC broadcasts can do to a regime. After all, they were put in power in no small part by the BBC radio broadcasts during the late 1970's!

And they are not going to allow someone else to topple them in the same manner!