Iran media update

Iran media update for 28 June 2009. "In Iran, the Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty uses several different radio frequencies and the Internet, while Voice of America’s Persian television service claims to reach more than 15 million viewers. Accurate audience measures are hard to come by in places like Iran. But the fact that Tehran spends a huge amount of money jamming these channels and blocking their websites tells us something. These broadcast services are not well known to Americans, because of a 1948 law that forbids the domestic dissemination of all material created for foreign audiences. But this law is now moot, because like everyone else, Americans can access these services online. Do so, and you will see that, contrary to what many assume, these channels do not merely broadcast US government propaganda. Nor do they follow CNN and other 'global' media in hopscotching between hot spots. On the contrary, these channels maintain a consistent, steady presence, outwitting the censors and keeping brave reporters on the ground, so that the people living in those countries can know what is going on, even when the whole world is not watching." Martha Bayles, Boston Globe, 28 June 2009.
"Ironically, the Iranian government’s heavy-handed media crackdown — the Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that more than 40 journos have been arrested in Iran since the election — has spurred Iranians to get even more of their news from foreign sources than usual. U.S.-based Iranian satcasters — many of which beam from Hollywood — have long flooded Iranians with everything from anti-regime political diatribes to non-stop musicvids and sports, but the clampdown on the media operations of Iran’s opposition movement left Iranians little choice but to turn to the likes of the BBC for news of events." Ali Jaafar, Variety, 26 June 2009.
"Al-Jazeera, the still-popular Qatari pan-Arab satellite television channel, is concentrating mostly on the official Iranian version of events, while trying to have it both ways. Its English-language edition includes occasional close-ups of Iranian demonstrators and victims of the regime, along with some reprinted columns critical of Tehran. But the Arabic programs and website -- the ones that matter in the region -- almost never contain such material, instead giving pride of place to Iranian government allegations of foreign-media or other nefarious interference in Iran's internal affairs." David Pollock and Mohammad Yaghi, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 26 June 2009.
"The TV 'experts' on the bbc, cnn and al jazeera are for the most part, completely out of touch, with the facts: this is way beyond ahmadi, the supreme leader and rafsanjani. Many of the Western press are just as out of touch: I recommend the Guardian from the UK if you must read something." Iranian alum of an American university, Leesean.net, 23 June 2009.
"The Iranian authorities and their lackeys in the state-controlled media are trying to launch a counter-offensive on the Neda phenomenon, writes Robert Tait. ... 'Javan, another pro-regime paper, blamed ... my friend and recently expelled BBC correspondent Jon Leyne. It claims that Leyne hired 'thugs' to shoot her so he could then make a documentary film.'" News blog, The Guardian, 24 June 2009.
"The doctor who tried to save an Iranian protester as she bled to death on a street in Tehran has told the BBC of her final moments." BBC News, 25 June 2009.
"Out of fear that history might repeat itself, the authoritarian governments of China, Cuba and Burma have been selectively censoring the news this month of Iranian crowds braving government militias on the streets of Tehran to demand democratic reforms." Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, 27 June 2009.
"I'm curious to see how the left responds to this from the realist realist in American today (and also unofficial adviser to Barack Obama) Brent Scowcroft: 'The US has intelligence agents in Iran but it is not clear if they are providing help to the protest movement there, a former US national security adviser has told Al Jazeera. ... ' Of all places to say something so foolish, Scowcroft choose Al Jazeera for maximum effect." Michael Goldfarb, The Blog, The Weekly Standard, 25 June 2009.
"During the [1979] revolution, news of protests, strikes and deaths was telephoned abroad by resistance networks, and broadcast back into the country by the BBC World Service and other short-wave radio stations." Paul Taylor, Reuters, 23 June 2009. See also Iran satellite update and Iran cyber update for 28 June. Posted: 28 Jun 2009

Foreign broadcasters walk a fine line in Iran

AP foreign, Monday June 29 2009

JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press Writer= LONDON (AP) — Inside the studios of BBC Persian television, dozens of journalists have been working around the clock at their computers and telephones, trying to report the news to Iran — or, according to the government in Tehran, stirring up trouble.

Since Iran's disputed election on June 12, the BBC and a handful of other Farsi-language broadcasters around the world, from Amsterdam to Jerusalem, have supplied millions of Iranians with independent reports in their own language about the country's most serious turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A 24-year-old student in Tehran said channels like BBC Persian and Voice of America "are the only true sources for the news for us inside Iran."

"During the demonstrations that happened on Saturday, which everybody in Iran knows what happened on the streets of Tehran and some other major cities, the state TV channels were showing comedy classic movies," said the student, who didn't want his name used for fear of reprisals.

Iran's religious government has accused foreign broadcasters — the BBC in particular — of fueling unrest during and after the contested election that returned hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. The BBC, VOA and other broadcasters say Iran has been jamming their television signals and have added new satellite paths to get around the blockage. The BBC and VOA also broadcast to Iran on short- and medium-wave radio and through Web sites that are sometimes blocked.

"We provide independent news," said the BBC's Iranian affairs analyst, Sadeq Saba. "That is why we are so popular in Iran. And that is why the Iranian government doesn't like us."

Foreign-based Farsi radio and TV broadcasters have gained increased importance for millions of Iranians since the election, as the country's Islamic authorities have moved to deprive people of independent sources of news. Facebook, Twitter and other Web sites have been blocked, text messaging has been cut off and cell phone service in Tehran is frequently down.

"I don't fully trust VOA or BBC Persian, but at least they are much better than the state TV channels," said a 57 -year-old shopkeeper in the northeastern city of Mashhad. "At least they don't hide the news."

Inside BBC Persian's offices overlooking the stone buildings and red double-decker buses of central London, the station's young Iranian staffers interview Iranians over the telephone, try to check elusive facts and edit footage from international broadcasters and Iranian "citizen journalists" whose videos of protests and street clashes have provided some of the most powerful images of the conflict.

BBC Persian television began broadcasting in January and before the election produced eight hours of programing a day — since increased to 11. The station is getting more than 6,000 e-mails a day, along with a flood of calls and text messages.

"It's been an intense couple of weeks," said the station's special correspondent, Kasra Naji. "I'm working 10, 12, 13 hours a day."

Like other broadcasters, BBC Persian says it's hard to know how many people inside Iran are watching, but it believes its audience is in the millions.

Youth-oriented Dutch station Radio Zameneh has also seen its profile rise since it switched its focus from underground music and alternative literature to politics in the days since the election. The station's 90-minute daily broadcast by shortwave and satellite appears to have developed a significant following — an Iranian diplomat accused the Dutch government, which funds the station, of meddling in Iran's internal affairs and financing propaganda.

In Los Angeles, home to a large Iranian community, Farsi-language radio station KIRN has opened up its phone lines to let Iranians in the U.S. share news gleaned from friends and family back home.

There also is an appreciative audience for Menashe Amir's Farsi-language broadcasts on state-run Israel Radio. From a spartan radio studio off a narrow Jerusalem alleyway, broadcasts a mix of popular Persian music, interviews with exiled Iranian intellectuals and chats with Iranians themselves — via a switchboard in Germany to get around a ban on calls from Iran to the Jewish state.

Amir, 69, has hosted Israel Radio's only Farsi-language broadcast for the past 50 years, but says the last two weeks have been the most memorable in his career.

"Every human being in the world should be concerned with what is happening there," said Amir, who left Iran in 1959 and has not visited since the 1979 revolution.

It's difficult to know the size of Amir's audience, but his daily hour-and-a-half long broadcast reaches well beyond Iran's 25,000-strong Jewish community. It's enough of a presence that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has name-checked the "Zionist broadcast" as among those behind the unrest.

The job of journalists in Iran has got a lot harder since Ahmadinejad's opponents began protesting against an election they claim was rigged. Hundreds of people have been detained, and at least 17 have been killed.

Foreign journalists in Iran have been prevented from moving around freely and told to stick to their offices. On Sunday — days after Khamenei singled out Britain as the most treacherous of the Western powers meddling in Iran's affairs — the BBC's full-time correspondent in Tehran was ordered to leave the country.

Iranian authorities refused BBC Persian permission to have journalists in Tehran, although BBC's English-language service has an office there.

Like the BBC, VOA says its TV signal has been jammed and has added three new satellite paths to allow transmission. It also is using YouTube, radio, Twitter and Facebook to help provide Iranians with information.

"We're coming up with a lot of different ways to get in there," said VOA's director of public relations, Joan Mower.

All the foreign broadcasters deny interfering in Iran's affairs. The BBC says it goes to great lengths to maintain standards of fairness and impartiality, even though many staff members are worried about close friends and family in Iran.

"It's not easy," said the BBC's Saba. "They are not covering a conflict in Russia or Ecuador. They are covering a conflict in their own country."

The BBC has been careful never to claim the election was rigged, and tries to verify images it gets from Iran by comparing different footage of the same event and interviewing eyewitnesses over the phone.

At Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — a U.S.-backed broadcaster which also is not allowed to have an office in Tehran — journalist Golnaz Esfandiari said it was "getting increasingly difficult to get information from Iran."

"People are facing pressure," she said, adding that despite that, "lots of them are willing to speak to us, because it's one of the only platforms where they can express themselves freely and where they can inform others about what's going on in their city, how they feel about this crisis."

---

Associated Press Writers Arthur Max in Amsterdam, Karel Janicek in Prague, Foster Klug in Washington and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

◎中国SARFT管理のジャミング専用送信所判明
　NDXCによると、中国の国家広播電影電視総局(SARFT)管理の短波送信所の内ジャミング専用に使用されているのは以下の送信所である。
　海南省　東方　略称DOF 150kW1台　500kW5台
　江西省　南昌　略称NAN 100kW6台
　黒竜江省　斉斉哈爾　略称QIQ 100kW6台　500kW1台
　福建省　泉州　150kW1台 （WWDXC Topnews 910)　この他北京郊外の顺义、内蒙古の呼和浩特、浙江省の寧波、広東省の広州、遼寧省の丹東等もジャミング送信所として使われていると言われていま す。これだけの設備があるのだから、国際的にジャミングの請負ビジネスも考えられます。またジャミングが不要となり、ロシアの旧ジャミング送信所が老朽化 した後は米国等の放送請 負も行うのでは？　

◎エチオピア向秘密放送に集中ジャミング
　ドイツのWolfgang Büschel氏によればロシアのSamara送信所からTDP仲介で250kW送信（方向188度）されている以下の各局にジャミングが集中的にかけら れている。何れも02:00-03:00に15350ｋHzである。
　月曜日　02:00-03:00　 Radio Bilal アムハリ語
　火曜日　02:00-02:30 Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia ソマリ語　02:30-03:00　Radio Asena　ティグリナ語
　水曜日　02:00-02:30 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio　アムハリ語　02:30-03:00　Denge Meselna-Delina　ティグリナ語
　木曜日　02:30-03:00 Radio Asena ティグリナ語
金曜日　02:00-02:30　 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio　アムハリ語 02:30-03:00　Denge Meselna-Delina　ティグリナ語
土曜日　02:00-03:00　 Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia ソマリ語 02:30-03:00 Radio Asena アラビア語
　日曜日　02:00-02:30 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio　アムハリ語 02:30-03:00 Denge Meselna-Delina　ティグリナ語
（WWDXC Topnews 911)

月刊短波２００９年６月

Iran Jams Foreign Satellite News In Bid To Isolate Public

Iranians are increasingly cut off from non-official sources of news on the ongoing protests against the reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

June 23, 2009

By Charles Recknagel

At RFE/RL's Radio Farda, the e-mails and phone calls come in continuously from Iran.

"It's really important that Radio Farda send reports every moment to us, because we do not have any access to news inside Iran," says one listener in Tehran. "Now the VOA and BBC have been jammed."

The listeners are helping the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Farda, which broadcasts 24 hours a day in Persian from Prague, to play an escalating cat-and-mouse game with Iranian government censors.

The censors have been trying to black out both U.S. and British government-sponsored newscasts in Persian almost from the moment a week ago that people began protesting the July 12 presidential election results.

To black out a newscast, Iranian authorities beam their own signal up to the commercial satellite carrying the foreign program. The beam is on the same frequency as the newscast, only at much higher power. As a result, anyone in Iran trying to receive the newscast on their home satellite dish receives only the meaningless, substitute signal instead.

Similarly, the government is blacking out foreign news programming in Persian on shortwave and medium-wave radio, particularly within major population centers. Here, authorities set up a local high-power transmitter to again overwhelm the newscast with a stronger signal on the same frequency.

Game Of Frequencies

Iranian officials are aiming most at broadcasts during the peak evening listening hours. And it is during these hours that the feedback from the news program's audience in Tehran grows most frenzied.

Iran has blocked not only opposition and news websites, but social networks like Facebook as well.

Many listeners simply send messages noting their location and that they can no longer hear the program. That alerts the broadcasters to the moment the programming is blocked. The trick for the broadcasters then becomes to shift the transmission signal slightly to escape the blackout.

During the time it takes the censors to catch up and similarly shift their substitute signal, the programming can be received by listeners searching their dials.

As the game has escalated, foreign broadcasters have dramatically increased the number of satellites and short wave frequencies carrying their programs.

From broadcasting originally only on Hotbird 6, a satellite whose "footprint" covers the Mideast and South Asia, Radio Farda now also broadcasts on four more satellites covering the region: Telstar 12, Nilesat 101, Arabsat BADR4, and Asiasat 3-D.

TBBC said last week it was using two extra satellites to broadcast its Persian-language service. VOA's Persian News Network (PNN) television programs are now beamed through five satellites with six different distribution channels.

It is the kind of struggle once common during the Cold War. For decades, the Soviet government spent huge amounts of money to isolate its citizenry from outside news sources.

But it's not something seen often since then. Iran has periodically blocked U.S. broadcasting at critical moments -- including the student demonstrations of 1999 and the last presidential election in 2005 -- but never with such a sustained effort as now.

Legality vs. Sovereignty

Iran's activity raises some legal questions, because the jamming is also knocking out some transmissions to countries other than Iran itself.

The BBC says its Arabic-language service and other language services to the Middle East have also experienced transmission problems since the jamming of its Persian-language frequency began June 14.

Rod Kirwan, a communications law and regulation expert at the international law firm Denton Wilde Sapte in London, says that Iran has the right under international telecommunications treaties to control the use of the broadcast spectrum within its territory, including foreign satellite broadcasting.

But when there is a spillover effect into neighboring countries, it is creating a harmful interference with the same rights of other member states in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Kirwan says that while the broadcast spectrum is a "sovereign right," it's up to each country "to decide how to best use the spectrum and, of course, nations have decided for the greater good to sign up to the ITU coordination arrangements in order that everything works and you have smooth international services."

But Kirwan adds that this "is a sort of voluntary restriction on your freedom to act as a sovereign body and that is the tension: national rights over sovereign territory or spectrum vs. international coordination rights."

Kirwan says that if other states complain, the case could become an escalating dispute. But it is not likely to result in clear penalties for Iran.

"It's one of the basic problems with public international law: who is around to enforce it? And, of course, there is nobody and so it ends in some kind of diplomacy and maybe bilateral pressure," Kirwan says. "But essentially these international treaty organizations operate on a voluntary basis."

SOS Calls For News

That makes jamming the foreign broadcasts a fairly cost-free political strategy for Iran. It is also not particularly expensive in financial terms. It only requires uplink equipment to reach the target satellite and the patience and manpower to play the cat-and-mouse game of shifting frequencies that follows.

Overall, the jamming effort falls into Tehran's larger goal of blocking out all key communications links that challenge the legitimacy of the presidential election results.

The government is blocking many international websites, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as local opposition sites. Text messaging has been cut off for the past week, and mobile-phone service in Tehran is frequently down.

No wonder, then that some of the messages Radio Farda receives from listeners sound like an SOS to the outside world from an increasingly cut-off populace.

"Today is Sunday, June 21. All sites, radios, and anything from which we could get true information have been jammed and now we can't get any news," one caller says.

"Now you need to show your higher technology. We are waiting to see whether you are able to overcome these parasites or not."

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused international media of waging a "psychological war" against the country. It's a charge that millions of Iranians now can make against Khamenei himself.

Satellite receivers pulled down to block overseas Tibetan services

(TibetanReview.net, Jun24, 2009) In further tightening of censorship over radio and television broadcasts, authorities in the Tibetan populated region of Kanlho (Chinese: Gannan) Prefecture in Gansu Province had been pulling down satellite dishes since Apr 2009 and had been installing cable lines, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA, Washington) Jun 21. The purpose of the pull down was stated to be to prevent the Tibetans from accessing overseas Tibetan broadcast services such as Radio Free Asia and Voice of America.

Cable lines were reportedly being laid to enable the people to access only Chinese government approved programmes.

“Local Tibetans were told by officials that they were carrying out the directives of central and provincial level authorities,” a Tibetan woman in the Labrang area was quoted as saying.

RFA said a prefectural document cites State Council document #129 in calling for an “unprecedented efforts to collect satellite dishes” to restrict access to long-distance broadcasts in Gansu province.

Earlier, prominent Beijing-exiled Tibetan writer and blogger Woeser wrote in a Jun 15 entry that hundreds of jamming towers had been built in Tibetan regions to block overseas Tibetan broadcast services. She said the airwave censorship was carried out vigorously in Kanlho in May’09.

This page has been read 32 times.

Last updated on Jun 24, 2009 10:28:38

BBC enlisting new satellites to broadcast in Iran

BBC enlisting new satellites to broadcast in Iran

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER – 19 hours ago

LONDON (AP) — The BBC said Friday it is using two extra satellites to broadcast its Farsi-language service after days of jamming it blamed on Iran, as several Western broadcasters seek to overcome obstacles to transmitting coverage of the country's political turmoil.

The British state-funded news organization said the move was meant to help it reach its Iranian audience as the crisis over their country's disputed election deepens. It is also a challenge to Iran's religious government, which has accused foreign broadcasters of stirring unrest, singling out the BBC in particular.

"This is an important time for Iran," BBC World Service Director Peter Horrocks said in a statement. "We hope that by adding more ways to access BBC Persian television, Farsi-speaking audiences can get the high quality news, analysis and debate they clearly desire."

As huge protests have followed the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran has moved to deprive people of independent sources of news.

BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and other sites have been blocked. Text messaging has been cut off for the past week, and cell phone service in Tehran is frequently down. The BBC said the Hot Bird 6 satellite — which it and other broadcasters use to broadcast to the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe — has been subject to aggressive interference.

The BBC has covered the protests extensively. Its Farsi service, like that of U.S. broadcaster Voice of America, is followed by many Iranians.

The BBC said it was making its Farsi-language service available on satellite Eutelsat W2M, which it said Iranians could tune into by making a small adjustment to their satellite dishes. The BBC also said the service would soon be available on Egyptian satellite Nilesat and it was increasing the length of its Farsi radio program.

Joan Mower, Voice of America's director of public relations, said VOA began to see some jamming about a month ago and had added three new satellite paths, or channels, that allow transmission. VOA has a total of five paths. She said the VOA was still broadcasting to Iran despite intermittent jamming.

VOA broadcasts eight hours a day of TV programming on a 24-hour loop and began a new, hour-long morning show last week. Mower said VOA had been inundated with e-mail, videos and phone calls, and traffic to its VOA Persian sites rose more than 200 percent between June 10 and June 15.

U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, based in central Europe, is also working to step up its satellite program, according to spokesman Julian Knapp. He said interference had increased "on all fronts" but said the service used a variety of ways to stream content into the country, including stepping up shortwave broadcasting.

Even before the presidential election, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blasted foreign broadcasters for their coverage of the campaign, accusing them of demoralizing voters and trying to drive down turnout. Shortly after Ahmadinejad's victory, he accused international media of waging a "psychological war" against the country.

Ahmadinejad has bristled at the coverage. His supporters were shown earlier this week wielding signs with "BBC" crossed out in red, and Britain's ambassador was summoned to hear complaints from Iranian officials. In a nationally broadcast speech Friday, Khamenei accused Western broadcasters stirring up chaos.

"Some of our enemies in different parts of the world intended to depict this absolute victory, this definitive victory, as a doubtful victory," Khamenei said. "It is your victory. They cannot manipulate it."

Associated Press Writers Foster Klug in Washington and Meera Selva in London contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

BBC says its satellite broadcasts being disrupted from Iran

June 14th, 2009 - 15:30 UTC by Andy Sennitt

The BBC said today that the satellites it uses to broadcast in Persian were being jammed from Iran, disrupting its reports on the hotly-disputed presidential election. The corporation said television and radio services had been affected from 1245 UTC Friday onwards by “heavy electronic jamming” which had become “progressively worse”. Satellite technicians had traced the interference to Iran, it said.

The satellites its uses in the Middle East to broadcast BBC Persian television to Iran were being affected, meaning that audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe would likely experience disruption. BBC Arabic television and other language services had also experienced transmission problems, the corporation said.

“Any attempt to block BBC Persian television is wrong and against international treaties on satellite communication. Whoever is attempting the blocking should stop it now,” said BBC World Service director Peter Horrocks. “It seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election.

“In Tehran, (BBC world affairs editor) John Simpson and his cameraman were briefly arrested after they had filmed material for a piece,” he added. Iranian authorities today shut down the office of Arab news channel Al-Arabiya in Tehran for a week in the wake of the disputed election win by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the channel said.

(Source: AFP)

Reporters Without Borders adds: The blocking of access to foreign news media has been stepped up. In addition to the blocking of the BBC’s website, the Farsi-language satellite broadcasts of the VOA and BBC – which are very popular in Iran – have been partially jammed. The Internet is now very slow, like the mobile phone network. YouTube and Facebook are hard to access and pro-reform sites such as Khordadeno, AftabNews and Ghalamesabz are completely inaccessible.

Andy Sennitt says: Two of the three sites mentioned above gave the message “bandwidth limit exceeded” when I checked at 1550 UTC, suggesting that DOS attacks may have been carried out.

IRAN - News and information fall victim to electoral coup

IRAN - News and information fall victim to electoral coup

    MONTREAL, June 15 /CNW Telbec/ - The Iranian authorities are continuing a
crackdown on journalists and information that began after the announcement of
the disputed presidential election results. Journalists are still being
arrested and more censorship measures have been adopted as President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's allies try to suppress media coverage of fraud allegations.
   "Independent sources of news and information find it very hard to make
their voice heard now in Iran because of the censorship," Reporters Without
Borders said. "The authorities are tightening their grip on all news media and
means of communication that could be used to dispute Ahmadinejad reelection
'victory'. They are doing everything possible to limit coverage of the
consequences of the election fraud."
   Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to the international
community not to recognise the results of the presidential election first
round held on 12 June.
   "A democratic election is one in which the media are free to monitor the
electoral process and investigate fraud allegations but neither of these two
conditions has been met for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's supposed reelection,"
Reporters Without Borders said. "We urge the international community,
especially European countries, not to recognise the results announced by the
authorities as long as the electoral process is subject to censorship. An
election won by means of censorship and arrests of journalists is not
democratic."

   Media and Internet censorship

   The security services have moved into the offices of newspapers where
they are reading articles and censoring content. Mehdi Karoubi, one of the
candidates, referred to the censorship in a press release. "I cannot even
publish my release in my newspaper Etemad Meli," he said.
   The newspaper's front page (displayed on http://www.roozna.com/) shows a
photo of Ahmadinejad at a rally with columns left blank because of editing by
the censors. The newspaper Velayat in the province of Qazvin (north of Tehran)
has been suspended for publishing a cartoon of Ahmadinejad.
   Even governmental news sources have been targeted in the crackdown. Four
interior ministry officials have been arrested for given results that were
different from those announced by Ahmadinejad's allies.
   Four of the leading pro-reform newspapers have been closed or prevented
from criticising the official election results following a warning from Tehran
prosecutor general Said Mortazavi. Kalameh Sabaz, a daily owned by opposition
presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, was one of these. Its distribution
was blocked and it was forced to change a front page announcing Mousavi's
victory. It has not been able to publish any issue since 13 June.
   The authorities have also launched a broad offensive against the
Internet, controlling and blocking all news websites likely to challenge
Ahmadinejad's announced victory. Ten or so pro-opposition websites have been
censored.
   They include www.entekhab.ir/ (inaccessible since 11 June),
www.ayandenews.com/ (inaccessible since 12 June), teribon.com/, the pro-reform
sites khordadeno.com/, aftabnews.ir/index.php and ghalamesabz.com/,
norooznews.ir (the news website of the pro-Mousavi Islamic Participation
Party) and www.ghalamsima.com/ (which also supports the Mousavi campaign). And
the women's rights website www.we-change.org/ has been blocked for the 20th
time.
   The international websites YouTube and Facebook are hard to access. The
mobile phone network is being jammed. The service of the leading mobile phone
operator, which is state controlled, has been suspended since 10 p.m. on 13
June. The SMS messaging network has been cut since the morning of 12 June,
preventing use of Twitter.

   Foreign media targeted

   The blockage of the foreign media has been stepped up. In addition to the
blocking of the BBC's website, the Farsi-language satellite broadcasts of the
VOA and BBC - which are very popular in Iran - have been partially jammed. The
BBC reported that their Farsi broadcasts have been the target of significant
jamming "coming from Iran" since 1245 GM on 12 June, and that the jamming has
been getting steadily worse.
   The authorities yesterday ordered the Tehran bureau of the Arab satellite
TV news station Al-Arabiya closed for a week after it broadcast video of the
first demonstration following the announcement of Ahmadinejad's reelection.
   Foreign journalists have been prevented from covering the demonstrations,
some have been notified that their visas will not be renewed, and some have
been the victims of police violence. A member of a TV crew working for the
Italian station RAI and a Reuters reporter were beaten by police in the
capital. A BBC TV crew was threatened by police at one point, but
demonstrators chased the police away. The correspondents of the German TV
stations ARD and ZDF were forbidden to leave their hotel on 13 June.
   Two Dutch TV journalists working for Nederland 2 were arrested and
expelled. Reporter Yolanda Alvarez of the Spanish television station TVE was
deported together with her crew today.

   Journalists arrested

   Eleven Iranian journalists have been arrested since 12 June. Reza Alijani
(winner of the 2001 Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France press
freedom prize), Hoda Sabaer and Taghi Rahmani were arrested on 13 June.
Alijani and Rahmani were released yesterday evening. Freelancer Kivan Samimi
Behbani, the former editor of Nameh ("The Letter"), an independent monthly
closed in 2005, and Ahamad Zeydabadi were also arrested and then released.
   Abdolreza Tajik was arrested at midday yesterday at the headquarters of
the newspaper Farhikhtegan by three men in plain-clothes. A member of the
Human Rights Defenders Centre, Tajik has worked for many Iranian publications
that have been closed by the authorities, including Bahar (closed in 2001),
Hambastegi (closed in 2003) and Shargh (closed in 2008).
   Five of the journalists arrested in the past few days are still detained.
They include Said Shariti, the editor of the news website Nooroz, who is being
held by the police, and Mahssa Amrabadi of the daily Etemad Melli. She was
arrested at her home yesterday by intelligence ministry agents who came with a
warrant for the arrest of her husband, fellow-journalist Masoud Bastani. He
was not at home at the time.
   Two women journalists working at the Mousavi campaign headquarters were
physically attacked on 12 June. The Mousavi campaign news centre was ransacked
on 13 June by Ahmadinejad supporters, who destroyed its computers. The Qalam
News agency operated out of this centre.
   There is no word of about 10 other journalists who have either been
arrested or gone into hiding.

For further information: Reporters Without Borders

Stop the blocking now

Post categories: BBC News website, World Service

Peter Horrocks | 14:03 PM, Sunday, 14 June 2009

BBC audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe may be experiencing disruption to their BBC TV or radio services today. That is because there is heavy electronic jamming of one of the satellites the BBC uses in the Middle East to broadcast the BBC Persian TV signal to Iran.

Satellite technicians have traced that interference and it is coming from Iran. There has been intermittent interference from Iran since Friday, but this is the heaviest yet.

It seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election. In Tehran, John Simpson and his cameraman were briefly arrested after they had filmed the material for this piece. And at least one news agency in Tehran has come under pressure not to distribute internationally any pictures it might have of demonstrations on the streets in Iran.

However, the availability of witness material from Iran is enabling international news organisations to be able to report the story. Viewers of BBC Persian TV have been in touch (in Farsi), sending videos, stills and providing personal accounts.

It is important that what is happening in Iran is reported to the world, but it is even more vital that citizens in Iran know what is happening. That is the role of the recently-launched BBC Persian TV which is fulfilling a crucial role in being a free and impartial source of information for many Iranians.

Any attempt to block this channel is wrong and against international treaties on satellite communication. Whoever is attempting the blocking should stop it now.

Peter Horrocks is the director of BBC World Service.

北朝鮮、テレビやラジオ電波の遮断を指示

北朝鮮、テレビやラジオ電波の遮断を指示 150日戦闘の期間に‘非社会主義検閲’を推進…外部の思想の浸透を警戒

李尙龍記者 [2009-05-22 13:09 ]

北朝鮮の労働党が金正日の指示により、5月25日から国境や海岸付近で外部の電波の受信を事前に遮断する、「自動遮断装置」を各機関に設置すると、NK知識人連帯が21日にホームページ（www.nkis.kr）で伝えた。 同団体は消息筋の言葉を引用して、労働党はこの装置を使えば、一般の住民が外国のテレビやラジオ放送を聴取することを事前に遮断できると予想していると伝えた。 北朝鮮の住民はこの装置を郵便局で、6千ウォン（北朝鮮の貨幣単位）で購入しなければならないという。北朝鮮当局は住民に、「この装置を設置すれば、郵便 局で周波数を固定しなくても自動的に周波数が固定されるため、電波障害の現象がなくなって、画像もより鮮明になる」と言い、設置を促している。 同消息筋は特に、「これからは登録されたテレビや録画機器を除いた、中国や日本の中古品の輸入や販売は許可しない。平壌の大同江テレビ工場で生産された製 品だけを販売・購入できることになった。自動遮断装置を使用しない場合、理由を問わず没収する」と北朝鮮当局の方針を紹介した。 さらに、「5月15日から全国的に非社会主義の検閲事業が進められている。『帝国主義者の思想・文化的な浸透や、心理謀略戦を確実に踏み潰すことについ て』という労働党の方針を伝達する事業も推進された。不純な録画物や出版物、放送を見たり聞いたりする現象を、徹底的に流布する行為に対しては、厳しい処 罰が下される」と説明した。 今回の検閲は「150日戦闘」の期間に行われるという。検閲された人は公開裁判で法的な処罰を受けて、家族は追放される。 最近、北朝鮮ではテレビや録画機器、録音機、ラジオを登録する人が増えて、検閲班が昼夜を問わず、頻繁に家宅捜査を行っているという。 今回の措置で北朝鮮の住民は、「電気の状態もよくないから見れなかったので、むしろテレビや録画機器などない方がいい」と言っていると、同消息筋は現地の雰囲気を伝えた。 北朝鮮は19日にも、6.15共同宣言実践北朝鮮委員会や文学芸術文化委員会を通じて、韓国は反共的な映画やテレビドラマ、外国の映画を大々的に上映し て、北朝鮮の現実を深刻に歪曲していると非難しながら、「南北対決を促している不純な謀略策動を直ちにやめるべきだ」と主張している。

中国SARFT管理のジャミング専用送信所判明

◎中国SARFT管理のジャミング専用送信所判明
　NDXCによると、中国の国家広播電影電視総局(SARFT)管理の短波送信所の内ジャミング専用に使用されているのは以下の送信所である。
　海南省　東方　略称DOF 150kW1台　500kW5台
　江西省　南昌　略称NAN 100kW6台
　黒竜江省　斉斉哈爾　略称QIQ 100kW6台　500kW1台
　福建省　泉州　150kW1台 （WWDXC Topnews 910)　この他北京郊外の顺义、内蒙古の呼和浩特、浙江省の寧波、広東省の広州、遼寧省の丹東等もジャミング送信所として使われていると言われていま す。これだけの設備があるのだから、国際的にジャミングの請負ビジネスも考えられます。またジャミングが不要となり、ロシアの旧ジャミング送信所が老朽化 した後は米国等の放送請 負も行うのでは？　

◎エチオピア向秘密放送に集中ジャミング
　ドイツのWolfgang Büschel氏によればロシアのSamara送信所からTDP仲介で250kW送信（方向188度）されている以下の各局にジャミングが集中的にかけら れている。何れも02:00-03:00に15350ｋHzである。
　月曜日　02:00-03:00　 Radio Bilal アムハリ語
　火曜日　02:00-02:30 Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia ソマリ語　02:30-03:00　Radio Asena　ティグリナ語
　水曜日　02:00-02:30 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio　アムハリ語　02:30-03:00　Denge Meselna-Delina　ティグリナ語
　木曜日　02:30-03:00 Radio Asena ティグリナ語
金曜日　02:00-02:30　 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio　アムハリ語 02:30-03:00　Denge Meselna-Delina　ティグリナ語
土曜日　02:00-03:00　 Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia ソマリ語 02:30-03:00 Radio Asena アラビア語
　日曜日　02:00-02:30 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio　アムハリ語 02:30-03:00 Denge Meselna-Delina　ティグリナ語
（WWDXC Topnews 911)

（月刊短波2009年6月号）

North Koreans Get Jamming Devices

2009-06-05

Nighttime raids and mandatory jamming devices curb North Koreans' already limited access to foreign media.

AFP

Video grab of a North Korean television broadcast, Oct. 09, 2006.

SEOUL—Authorities in North Korea are launching a campaign to have jamming devices installed in the home of anyone with a television or radio in a bid to block news reaching its citizens from foreign broadcasters.

As part of supreme leader Kim Jong Il’s “150-day Campaign” aimed at mobilizing North Koreans and boosting production, the North Korean authorities are expanding a crackdown on those who listen to overseas news, according to a defector group in South Korea.

North Koreans manage to gain limited access to foreign media broadcasts despite increasing interference from the isolated Stalinist state, and growing numbers are viewing or listening to media from rival South Korea.

The authorities are conducting an increasing number of nighttime inspections of households to crack down on those watching foreign TV or videos or listening to foreign radio broadcasting."

Defector

While channels are fixed on North Korean television sets, they have proved easy to alter, allowing access to South Korean programming.

Defectors at the Seoul-based nongovernment group, North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, said authorities in Pyongyang had issued a directive that all households in these areas have to purchase and install a radio jamming device.

“If people listen to foreign broadcasting, the legitimacy of the official line and the official ideology is in jeopardy,” one defector, a North Korean computer science expert with in-depth knowledge of the media environment, said in an interview.

“That is why the authorities are going to great lengths to crack down on listening to foreign broadcasting, and that is why they are implementing the rather extreme measure of making it compulsory to install miniaturized jamming devices in each household in areas that are likely to have better reception of foreign broadcasts.”

One factory named

He said another directive appeared to have been issued, instructing North Koreans to buy only televisions manufactured at the Daedong-kang Factory in Pyongyang, and that no one should own a television set without a jamming device.

“Since the reception is better in the coastal and border areas, the miniaturized jamming devices are installed free of charge, but deeper inside North Korea households are required to purchase and install the devices,” the defector said.

Officials were telling people that the device would improve reception, and that manual tuning would no longer be necessary with the device installed, he said.

“As they proceed with the ‘150-day Campaign,' the North Korean authorities are cracking down on foreign visual, printed, or recorded material,” the defector said.

“People are now required to have their televisions, radios, and audio or video recorders registered.”

He added: “The authorities are conducting an increasing number of nighttime inspections of households to crack down on those watching foreign TV or videos or listening to foreign radio broadcasting.”

Technologically trained defectors said the devices were fairly low-tech, cheap to produce, and easy to install.

Growing audience

Some experts say as many as 20 percent of citizens in the isolated Stalinist state could now be tuning into overseas media.

A 2005 survey of 300 North Korean defectors in South Korea found that 18 percent had come into contact with South Korean media while still in North Korea.

South Korean videos are popular in North Korea, entering the reclusive country mainly through China. South Korean television drama VCDs and tapes are copied and distributed inside North Korea.

North Korea, one of the world's most reclusive and tightly closed countries, tightly controls its own media and prohibits all but the most elite from accessing foreign media. Punishment for anyone caught listening to foreign media is severe.

But nongovernmental organizations say a brisk trade exists nonetheless in smuggled DVDs from China and South Korea.

One report in 2008 suggested police were routinely cutting electricity to blocks of residential flats and then raiding them to see what DVDs had been jammed in the players.

Original reporting in Korean by J.W. Noh. Korean service director: Francis Huh. Translated by Grigore Scarlatoiu. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

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