‘West’s censorship shows Iran success’

An analyst says the fact that the West is trying to silence alternative TV channels like Press TV, proves that such channels have been successful in providing alternatives to the capitalist-imperialist ideology.

The comments come as in yet another instance of suppressing freedom of speech, the Arab satellite provider Gulfsat has banned Iranian channels iFilm and Al-Kawthar under direct pressure from the European satellite company, Eutelsat. The removal of the channels has been ordered to the Egyptian satellite communications firm, Nilesat, which is responsible for their coverage. On February 8, iFilm was removed from the Galaxy 19 satellite platform.

Press TV has talked with Caleb Maupin, from the International Action Center, from New York City to shed more light on the topic. He is joined by two additional guests on Press TV’s The Debate: Press TV’s Hamid Reza Emadi, from the Iranian capital city of Tehran, and Calvin Hubbard, with the Christian Israel Action Committee, from Baltimore. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Maupin, there are many international stations on satellite. In your perspective, why has Iran been targeted as opposed to other stations?

Maupin: Well, in the Western world, most of the media is private property. It is owned by bankers and capitalists and it projects the viewpoints they would like to present to the world.

For example, the MSNBC is owned by General Electric. General Electric is a company that works…, you know, has Pentagon contracts, makes a lot of money from wars and from bombs. Another example is Fox News, which is owned by the Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch and they project onto the world a viewpoint that they want to hear, a viewpoint that covers up for the US interventions around the world, that paints Israel in a good light. That is what happens.

And the media that comes out of Iran is presenting an alternative. It is not going along with the narrative that they push and as a result there has been an effort to suppress the Iranian media and they find the Iranian media particularly threatening because millions of people in the Western world are starting to stand up and oppose their governments, and the capitalist government of the United States at this point is so unpopular.

There are, actually, millions of people in the United States who support Chris Dorner, who actually support Chris Dorner. That is how unpopular the government of the United States is.

People are really upset with the economic crisis, with homes being foreclosed everyday, with all kinds of unemployment; that there is a real political crisis going on in Europe and the United States and the people are really full of rage at the fact that a few bankers and capitalists are sitting with all their wealth while the society around them is collapsing and as a result people are turning, people of the United States are listening to alternative voices, people like Press TV and hearing what they have to say and looking for an alternative to this capitalist-imperialist system which is collapsing everywhere.

And so as a result the powers that be, are very threatened by the Iranian media because there are million of people who want to hear what the Iranians have to say; want to hear what people who are opposing the bankers and the capitalists have to say and as a result, the bankers and the capitalists have a desire to suppress that viewpoint in order to attempt to maintain order in their homelands.

Press TV: What do you think it will take, basically… now that it seems that it seems that another station; and interestingly enough iFilm is not a news channel, it is not political but it is a movie channel and even a movie channel now is being banned.

Why do you think that they feel threatened for example from iFilm? A station that basically just shows movies?

Maupin: Well, in the United States many of the movies that are coming out are actually designed to promote war.

This recent film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” basically, was an advertisement for torture. Trying to justify the torture that the US has been doing around the world.

Recently there was a film called “Red Dawn” that was released in the United States, which portrayed the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea invading the United States and was designed to get people in the US and Europe to hate the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

So even films, you know, fictional feature films can be used for propaganda purposes and the US knows that and they would like Hollywood, which presents a largely pro-US and pro-military and pro-foreign intervention message, they would like to have a monopoly on what people in the US hear.

However that is not the case, with technology now, with the Internet, it is very hard to suppress alternative views and with the economic situation in the US, with the capitalism collapsing, on not just domestic but a global level; there are millions of people that are actively looking for an alternative, and Press TV provides that and the fact that they have a need to suppress Press TV and the Iranian media in general should be a compliment to Iranian media.

It should show how effective they have been in letting the truth get out there and exposing the lies and letting the truth come through and, if anything, the fact that they have been so viciously gone after is a compliment to all the work that Press TV and other Iranian media has done.

That is really what it is about and the fact that they use free speech, you know, allover the Western world, there are people being jailed.

The FBI has raided the home of peace activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. There are people in Seattle who are in jail for refusing to go before grand juries to testify about their political associates.

You know, there are all kinds of suppression of free speech going on in the United States and in Europe but of course, you know, they love to talk about free speech when they are trying to rile up the population to hate people who oppose the US around the world and to get ready for war.

Press TV: What is the goal from here? Because, should not at this point in time, for example journalists and freedom-loving people all over the world, should they not be in outrage right now when they see this type of censorship that is taking place? Where is the outrage?

Maupin: They absolutely should be outraged. The fact that the Iranian media is being suppressed is part of a continued campaign. The bankers on Wall Street have never forgiven the Iranian people for the fact that in 1979, they heroically rose up and threw out the Shah, who was a US-backed dictator, and seized the oil for themselves and said that the oil belong to the Iranians not to the Wall Street banks.

And the Western bankers and imperialists have never forgiven the Islamic Republic of Iran for that.

You know, they want profit and they want that oil for themselves. That is what is going on and the US imperialist, they give 80 million dollars every day to Israel.

Eighty million dollars everyday! While they are closing schools, closing libraries, closing hospitals all around this country, but 80 million dollars goes to Israel so they can continue to threaten the people of the Middle East and these efforts to suppress the Iranian media is part of a continued campaign.

The bankers and the superrich want to dominate the world and they want all the wealth of this world to flow into their pockets and the people of the world, the freedom-loving people of the world, if they love peace, democracy, equality, basic human values, if they love those things they need to stand against the suppression of the Iranian media and stand against the war drive coming out of the United States and Israel right now and that is a fact and if they really are opposed to suppression of people and if they really love peace, freedom, democracy, all of these ideals, if they really love that, they will stand with Press TV and they will stand against the Western bankers and against Israel.

Press TV: Mr. Maupin, your final comments on this? Can there be a change in the way that things are run internationally? That these international entities are getting away with, doing basically whatever they want even against Iranian television stations and others?

Maupin: The people in the Western world need to realize that their enemies are not in Iran, they are on Wall Street and they are in Israel. That is the enemies of the people in the Western world and that is who we needs to stand against… and we need to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran or the people of Venezuela, the people of Cuba, people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, against the bankers on Wall Street and we need to have international solidarity.