The “watch dog” of the German media is seeking to issue a permanent ban against all broadcasts of the Iranian news channel PRESS TV because of antisemitism. Recently the channel has restarted broadcasting via the Astra satellite.
PRESS TV is generally known as the propaganda channel of the Islamic Republic, i.e., Iran and since they broke the rules they were rejected from the list of ‘Sky Digital’ satellite program in England. For that reason Bayersische Landes Medien Zentrale (BLM) the institution that inter alia watches which channels broadcast from Bayern to the Astra satellite, decided to check PRESS TV. BLM concluded that the PRESS TV channel does not have a valid license, and therefore notified Astra to stop the broadcasting to the satellite.
PRESS TV objected to the halting of the broadcasts, claiming that formerly too they had broadcasted throughout Europe without any special license. The court in Munich accepted this argument and ruled that the decision to stop the broadcasting was invalid and allowed PRESS TV to broadcast again through the Astra 1 satellite, including to Germany. Now BLM is again attempting to permanently ban the channel broadcasts and claims that PRESS TV regularly broadcasts antisemitism and negative news aimed at Israel, as well as untrue reports against Israel. BLM claims it is an independent institution and is not influenced by the Merkel government. The discontinuation of the PRESS TV channel in England caused additional strain between the governments of England and Iran.
In addition, Canal IDigital in Holland (which does not broadcast the channel but can offer it in the Astra list via Free to Air) has already removed the channel from its past list. PRESS TV broadcasts can still be viewed via Hotbird and now also via Astra1. In addition Astra 1 can be viewed digitally via several cable channels in Germany and these channels are now waiting to see what happens. In the Netherlands and Flanders there are no providers that broadcast the channel. PRESS TV claims it wishes to bring the news differently but objectively, but in reality it broadcasts in the manner the free West is viewed in Iran based on the rigid Islamic norms that inter alia suppress non-religious people or people of other religions, homosexuals and women.
