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Euro-ministers condemn Iran sat-jamming
Chris Forrester ©RapidTVNews | 21-03-2010
A meeting is taking place in Brussels today between various European foreign ministers. High on their agenda will be a call to confront Iran’s illegal jamming of satellite transmissions.
BBC Persia has been the subject of significant problems from Iran. "Iran has been regularly jamming the broadcasting by satellite of a number of foreign televisions and radio stations...since December 2009, a repetition of its practice in the run up to the disputed elections earlier that year," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle wrote to the European Union's new foreign-policy chief, Baroness Catherine Ashton. "The objective was clearly to prevent the people of Iran from freely exercising their right to information," said the letter.
The three European powers want the EU not only to declare the practice, but to look at penalties. The French, home to Eutelsat, have been pushing particularly hard on the issue in recent weeks. One European diplomat reportedly says that one option was to penalise Iran by removing its own channels from Eutelsat. There is expected to be widespread support for such a declaration, the diplomat added.
© Rapid TV News 2010
