Iran now jams CELL PHONES

[240 is Back]

Iran jamming BBC satelite feed to prevent election coverage

The BBC said Sunday 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 GMT 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 on Sunday 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.

BBC Persian, launched in 1940, is one of the corporation's oldest non-English language services.

[the_steevo_uk]

So unlike Iran to supress freedom of speech 

[240 is Back]

In wake of mass protests, Iran cuts off cell phones, YouTube, Facebook


The main mobile telephone network in Iran was cut in the capital Tehran Saturday evening while popular Internet websites Facebook and YouTube also appeared to be blocked, correspondents said.

The communication cuts came after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide re-election victory, sparking rioting in the streets by opposition supporters who claimed the result had been rigged.

The mobile phone network stopped working at 10:00 pm (1730 GMT), just before Ahmadinejad went on television to declare the election a “great victory” and even as baton-wielding police were clashing with protestors in the streets of Tehran, according to witnesses.

Iran has two national networks run by state-owned MCI (Telecommunication Company of Iran) and the private firm Irancell.

Several Iran-based users logging on via different Internet service providers, meanwhile, said they could reach neither Facebook nor YouTube — the two websites used effectively by young supporters of Ahmadinejad’s moderate rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Mousavi complained bitterly on Saturday against “vote rigging” in the election, unleashing violent clashes between his supporters and anti-riot police.

Scores of users started posting pictures and videos of the protests on both sites shortly after they broke out in Tehran’s streets.

Iranian authorities banned the popular social networking website Facebook on May 23 reportedly to prevent Mousavi supporters from using it for his presidential campaign prior to Friday’s poll.

Access was restored after a few days.

About 60 percent of Iran’s 70-million population is under 30 years old and the country, which applies strict monitoring of cyber material, has some 20 million web users.

Several pro-Mousavi news websites have also been blocked in the past two days including two popular ones, Aftab News and Shahab News, which are regarded as close to Iran’s top arbitration body, the Expediency Council.

The Council is headed by influential former president and Mousavi-backer, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was the subject of mudslinging in the presidential campaign after Ahmadinejad accused his sons of receiving financial privileges in the past.

[240 is Back]

Biden: 'Awful lot of doubt' about Iran poll

US Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday there was “an awful lot of doubt” about the outcome of the Iranian elections in which President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was declared the winner.

In an interview with NBC television, Biden refrained from saying whether the United States accepted the results of the Iranian elections announced in Tehran.

“There is an awful lot of doubt” about the results of the vote and the United States would analyze them before commenting, he said.

“We don’t have all of the details. It looks like the way they’re suppressing speech, the way they’re suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated — there is some real doubt about that,” the vice-president said.

With wire services

This video is from NBC’s Meet the Press, broadcast June 14, 2009.