A recent survey shows that a majority of people in Western countries oppose sanctions against Iran’s English-language news network Press TV.
A poll asking a total of 6,121 people in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Spain and the United States indicates that 73-85 percent of the respondents aware of the sanction on Press TV are against the bans.
Moreover, 65 percent opposed the imposition of sanctions on Iran because of the Islamic Republicâ„¢s political standpoint, while 88 percent opposed banning Iranian media only due to their country of origin.
The opinion poll also found out that 90 percent of the respondents believe in the unrestricted expression of various political viewpoints and 77 percent consider sanctions on media as a violation of freedom of speech.
Among the people questioned in the survey, the French and Spaniards were most vociferous against media restrictions, with 87 and 86 percent respectively rejecting any such sanctions.
Press TV and other Iranian broadcasters have been repeatedly targeted by restrictive measures spearheaded by Zionist Israeli elements.
In January, the Arab satellite provider Gulfsat banned Iranâ„¢s movie channel iFilm and its Arabic-language Al-Kawthar under direct pressure from the European satellite company, Eutelsat.
The decision came one day after Eutelsat, owned by Franco-Israeli Michel de Rosen, asked Nilesat to take Press TV off the air.
On December 21, 2012, HispaSat took Iran’s Press TV and Hispan TV off the air, and ordered Overon, a subsidiary satellite company, to stop the transmission of the two international TV channels.
In November 2012, the Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) also took Iranian channels off the air in East Asia.
Last October, Eutelsat SA and Intelsat SA stopped the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels, citing pressure by the European Union. The EU, however, denied the claims by the European satellite companies.
MRS/HMV
This article originally appeared on : Press TV