Iran’s IRIB rejects jamming claim by ITU
April 15th, 2010 - 11:22 UTC
by Andy Sennitt.

Iran’s national broadcaster, IRIB, has rejected a claim by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that Iran has jammed foreign radio and television broadcasts. IRIB said it was a law abiding member of the ITU, and had never violated any of its regulations.

IRIB’s response was contained in a letter to the ITU Secretary-General, Hamadoun Touré, from Mohammad Hosseini, adviser to the IRIB President and Chairman of its Center for International Affairs. Dr Hosseini said IRIB had itself been the victim of interference to its signals, causing considerable problems to its networks.

He detailed instances in June 2009 where interfering signals had been directed at Intelsat, interrupting IRIB’s programmes and in one case knocking its domestic networks off the air. Interfering signals aimed at Arabsat and AsiaSat had caused similar problems, he said. “Unfortunately your union has not reacted to such violations and refrained from supporting one of its active members.”

In addition, he said some networks such as the BBC had violated Iran’s rights over the past year by carrying out “many wrongdoings” that were a flagrant interference in its internal affairs. “As you are fully aware, the article one of the 1936 Geneva Convention bans broadcasting of any programmes for people of any country aimed at encouraging them to take actions which undermine the peace and tranquility of their own country,” Dr Hosseini said.

He expressed IRIB’s readiness to work and cooperate with the ITU based on the union’s laws and regulations. In its call to Iran last month to stop jamming broadcasts, the ITU said it was acting on European complaints.