EU against Iranian media telling truth to Westerners: Poll

The majority of respondents taking part in the latest Press TV survey believe that the European Union (EU) is banning Iranian media in a bid to prevent them from telling the truth to the Westerners.

The opinion poll was conducted on October 16-28 with results indicating that nearly 76 percent (8,332 respondents) of the 11,032 participants believe that the EU does not want the Iranian media to tell Westerners what the truth is.

According to the poll, some 17 percent of the respondents (1,827 people) maintained that the bloc does not want the Iranian media to break the West’s media monopoly.

Meanwhile, four percent of respondents (488 individuals) said the EU does not want the Iranian media to mislead people in the West, and the remaining 3 percent opined that the EU is just implementing its broadcast rules and regulations.

Some 21 percent of respondents were American citizens, with 12.2 percent coming from the UK, 3.8 percent from Canada, and 63 percent from other countries.

On October 18, European satellite provider Eutelsat SA stopped the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels on the order of the European Commission.

In a blatant violation of freedom of speech, the company ordered media services company, Arqiva, to take the Iranian satellite channels off one of its Hot Bird frequencies.

The Iranian channels being taken off the air include Press TV, al-Alam, Jam-e-Jam 1 and 2, Sahar 1 and 2, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, Quran TV, and the Arabic-language al-Kawthar.

Iranian news channels affected by the decision say they only sought to break the West’s monopoly on news broadcast by reflecting the voice of the oppressed people to the world.