The head of Iran’s security forces has announced that any Iranian wanting to do work for a satellite network first needs a valid licence from the Ministry of Guidance, and working with the BBC and Voice of America is considered cooperation with “the enemy’s intelligence services.”
ISNA reports that Commander Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, the head of Iran’s security forces, said those who are inclined to work with satellite networks must coordinate with the Ministry of Guidance and receive permission.
“Anyone who doesn’t have the necessary permission cannot engage in productions inside or outside Iran or set up an agency office for these channels,” Ahmadi Moghaddam said.
He added that documentary makers, actors and film artists will only be allowed to collaborate with satellite networks that have no anti-regime agenda.
He insisted that the BBC and Voice of America are “intelligence arms of the United States like the CIA” and emphasized that collaboration with these networks “is not collaboration with the media but rather working with the security services of the enemy, and naturally it will be dealt with by the Intelligence Ministry.”
Last month, authorities arrested six Iranian documentary makers on charges of collaborating with the Persian BBC.
The BBC has announced that it has no collaborators or employees in Iran.
In the past month, in addition to efforts to block satellite signals, Iranian authorities have also engaged in a widespread campaign of confiscating satellite dishes from people’s homes in order to stop them from accessing programs broadcast from outside Iranian borders.
