Press TV - Britain's War on Free Speech

Perfidious albion; our government is happy to go to war all over the world in the name of freedom, liberty and democracy. Our government will extol the virtues of freedom of expression and speech, but not in the case of Press TV, where it has prevailed upon its poodle - the so called independent media watchdog, OFCOM to remove Press TV from the Sky broadcasting platform.

The hypocrisy could not be more obvious.

After all, you can have a plethora of sex channels on British television, you can even have a gay sex channel on British television and that's no problem for David Cameron's media regulator, OFCOM.

You can be Rupert Murdoch at the head of a media corporation, which stands accused of rampaging through practically every law in the book and yet you are deemed to be a fit and proper person to operate a television station in London.

The official reason behind the decision made by Ed Richard, the current Controller of Corporate Strategy at the BBC and the head of Britain's Office of Communications (OFCOM), was that Press TV's editorial team was based in Tehran.

Perhaps Mr. Richard should be reminded that CNN are head quartered in the USA.

What this decision says is that you can't be a news channel that looks at the news from a different perspective to the grim prevailing orthodoxy of Washington and London.

It's fair to say that Press TV has been a thorn in the side of Britain's right-wing and pro-Israeli groups, who have worked rigorously to limit its operations inside Britain.

Some political analysts have pointed squarely at the collusion between the zionist media lobby group, Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (Bicom) & their influence over the (state-controlled) OFCOM to ban the alternative English-language channel, Press TV in the UK.

Should we really be surprised?

The WikiLeak cables showed that the US state department wanted Press TV off Britain's air waves.

Our very own Foreign Office told US embassy officials who deal with Iran in February 2011, that it was "Exploring ways to limit the operations of … Press TV … which operates a large bureau (over 80 staff) in London."

So our Government has bent over and serviced the Americans yet again. Care to remind me who actually runs this country? Do we have any sovereignty left or are we the junior partner that merrily shoe shines for his American master.

With the pressure of hostilities being ramped up against Iran on a daily basis, we are of the view that this is simply a ploy to silence any dissenting opinion against the manufacturing of war consent. If you deny Iran the ability of expressing what is really happening in its country and the motives behind the forces who are preparing to attack it, then you kill any opposing opinion to the pro war hawks.

Press TV may not be available on the Sky platform, but its still broadcasting into the UK. You can still view Press TV live on the internet, via a downloadable app on your smart phones, or by any of the methods outlined on Press TV's website.

They say truth is the first casualty of war.

It's upto us to ensure that the lies told in the build up to the illegal invasion of Iraq are not allowed to be repeated again.