TEHRAN -- The head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has censured Western-led sanctions against the broadcaster, saying the bans are in contravention of the principle of freedom of speech and a clear manifestation of “media dictatorship.”
Peyman Jebelli made the remark in an interview while elaborating on the monopolistic and dictatorial approach of anti-Iran media as well as the West’s imposition of strict sanctions on the IRIB and its subsidiaries following recent foreign-backed riots in Iran.
“For years, we have witnessed obvious inconsistency between the claims and actions of those who claim to be champions of free speech, democracy and respect for society, one of the examples of which is the US violation of human rights by sanctioning the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting,” Jebelli told Fars news agency.
“When the Western and international institutions move to boycott the IRIB, they show that dictatorship and the violation of speech freedom, with which they deafened the ears of the whole world for years, happen so easily,” he added.
Stressing that the IRIB is Iran’s national media, Jebelli said the organization produces content and provides information in accordance with the needs of the society, and contributes in the progress of the country.
“If there is supposed to be freedom of expression, [Iran’s] national media as a platform for expressing people’s views and managing public opinion will do its job, and their media will also do their job, and both sides should have the freedom [to do their job],” the IRIB CEO said.
“How come the anti-Iran media, which are busy day and night with encouraging sedition, training riots, creating subversion and undermining Iran and other countries’ security, operate freely in the heart of Europe and none of the media regulatory guidelines are applied to them,” Jebelli added.
“But the IRIB, which is a media specific to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s boundaries and operates according to the law, violates the rules in their opinion and they cannot even tolerate the existence of this organization and this media on satellites?”
Jebelli said, “This is one of the very obvious examples of media dictatorship that we have clearly faced in recent events.”
In November, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeted with sanctions the IRIB Chief Jebelli, head of the IRIB World Service and CEO of English-language Press TV television news network Ahmad Norouzi, IRIB Vice Director General Mohsen Barmahani, director of Press TV’s Programs Department Yousef Pour-Anvari, as well as the IRIB senior correspondents Ali Rezvani and Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour.
OFAC claimed that the IRIB had broadcast “hundreds of forced confessions of Iranian, dual national, and international detainees in Iran” during recent riots over the death of a young woman of Kurdish descent in the capital, Tehran.
The U.S. bans in November came a week after the European Union imposed sanctions on a number of Iranian institutions and individuals over alleged “rights violations” following the recent foreign-backed riots in the country.