[ppi] [ppiindia] Crackdown on Satellite TV Taken Stoically

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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34408

MEDIA-IRAN:
Crackdown on Satellite TV Taken Stoically
Kimia Sanati


TEHRAN, Aug 21 (IPS) - Iranians have taken stoically a crackdown on rooftop 
satellite dishes that allow then to watch 'decadent' foreign channels as well 
as a proliferation of Farsi language programmes beamed in by dissident 
expatriates. 

Police action, last week, enforcing a 1994 law that bans the possession and use 
of satellite dishes, was generally mild and squads steered away from entering 
people's homes and seizing receivers. There seemed defiance in the fact that 
many of Iran's estimated 3-4 million satellite TV viewers had not bothered to 
act on a warning issued by the city police chief more than a month ago. 

'Shargh', a leading reformist newspaper carried on its front page, on Thursday, 
a prominent picture of policemen destroying satellite dishes. Saeed Aboutaleb, 
a parliamentarian who piloted the move criticised the police for going after 
householders and not being harsh enough on distributors and service providers. 
"Channels bearing immoral content and politically oriented ones will be 
filtered," Shargh quoted him as saying. 

Many of the distributors have been of help in hacking into the signal decoders 
that make it possible to view hundreds of channels not only illegally but also 
for free. Fearing arrest, the distributors are now lying low and have switched 
off their mobile telephones. 

"They blocked the street, rang the doorbells, announced it was the police, and 
then went straight to the rooftops. I guess they didn't have warrants to enter 
apartments and seize the receivers. They cut the cables and broke or took away 
the dishes but didn't confiscate the receivers as they used to do," said Ahmad 
Ramezani who lives in Tehran's uptown Elahieh district. 

In some cases, the police were content with issuing warnings. For example, in 
Karaj, a city near the capital, residents of apartment blocks received letters 
from the police directing them to take down their equipment and deposit it at 
the local police station, the Fars News Agency reported. 

"What difference does it make if we have to take away our dishes from the 
roofs?" asked Zahra Amani, a retired primary school teacher. "Since last year 
they have been jamming satellite signals so badly that it's almost impossible 
to watch anything. It was bad during the early days of Iran's nuclear crisisà 
almost all channels were affected.'' 

Amani said she thought it odd that the jamming did nothing to channels with 
pornographic content but seemed to be directed at Farsi language channels run 
by dissidents. ''At first I thought there was something wrong with my receiver 
and called my satellite man (distributor) but then he told me many of his 
customers in our area were experiencing the same thing. I have heard that it 
(jamming) can be very harmful to people's health." 

According to the Iranian Students' News Agency the police have been directed to 
deal only with dishes that are plainly visible. But in some places dishes were 
seen being thrown off rooftops. During the initial waves of the crackdown in 
the northern province of Gilan and Kurdistan province in the west, a couple of 
weeks ago, police reportedly broke into some "private domains". 

"Iranian state TV channels are very boring. The music is always dull, there are 
no dances and the news is always censored," said a young college student who 
rued the thought that he would not be able to watch his favourite channels -- 
the Farsi language channels that are located outside the country and are far 
livelier with music, news and films. 

Farsi language channels are privately owned unless they are propaganda channels 
like the Voice of America. Quite a few of them are run by exiles and have 
political agendas inimical to the regime and support anything from a return to 
monarchy and ethnic dissidence. There is even a channel promoting conversion to 
Christianity, an act punishable with death. 

Testimony to the popularity of the Farsi channels is the fact that they are 
able to raise revenue through commercials that promote not only foreign 
products and services but also Iranian ones. But recently, the Islamic guidance 
ministry warned Iranian companies not to patronise "unauthorized" satellite 
channels. Government employees, academics and other have likewise been told not 
to give interviews to or appear in programmes on such channels. 

"We need to know what is really happening in the world. We have no private 
television or radio stations. All we know is what the government decides is 
good for us. It's natural that people will be attracted to other voices." says 
Negar (second name concealed), a student of medicine in Tehran University. Her 
family has been watching satellite TV for many years, taking down the equipment 
everytime there was talk of police raids. 

One source of hope for people like Negar is technology in the shape of 
direct-to-home (DTH) satellite services which can be received using small, 
indoor dish antennae. 

In fact, the 'cultural committee' of the hardliner-dominated Iranian parliament 
has been drafting a motion to amend the 1994 law and authorize private service 
providers to offer DTH channels to the public. 

"The motivation for the crackdown can be the increasing number of Farsi 
language channels as well as greater diversity in their contents. They can 
greatly influence social and political behaviour,'' said a political analyst 
who asked not to be named. 

"We are going to have elections to the 'assembly of experts' and city council 
elections, simultaneously, in less than three months' time. Hardliners are 
determined to win these elections. They are not as united as they were in the 
previous election and are, therefore, more vulnerable now. They are making 
every effort to prevent these bodies from falling into the hands of moderate 
conservatives, let alone reformists," he added. 

Before last year's presidential elections, Mehdi Kalhor, President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad's cultural advisor and representative on the board of supervisors 
of the state broadcasting organization had pledged that the new government 
would not limit people's freedoms -- including the use of satellite TV. 

''Ahmadinejad is apparently distancing himself from advisors who encourage 
social freedom and is getting closer to people like the hardliner police chief 
who is, incidentally, his brother-in-law," says the political analyst. 

"I have stored away my equipment for the time being," Reza, 34, a government 
employee says optimistically. "We have experienced this several times before. 
It's only a wave and it will pass soon. Hundreds of thousands of homes in 
Tehran alone have them. How can the police deal with them all?" (END/2006) 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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