A US Congress policy advisor says taking Iranian channels off air and depriving the people of the world of alternative views is the hallmark of ‘the tyranny of the mind,’ Press TV reports.
Frederick Peterson told Press TV on Monday that limiting “debate and intimidate dissent, and actions made to close off positions with which one may disagree internationally are also common hallmarks of tyranny.”

Peterson added that by depriving people of the opportunity to seek truth through exchange of ideas, “You exchange freedom for thought-thuggery and it is an easy way out for tyrants to limit the thought and the information available to its people and not to trust its people to make intelligent, rational decisions in their own interests.”
“It is certainly not the hallmark of a free state or of free people to allow that to happen and I am appalled at that,” Peterson said.
Press TV and other Iranian channels have come under an unprecedented wave of attacks by European governments and satellite companies since January 2012. They have been taken off the air in several Western countries including Britain, France, Germany and Spain.

On June 19, Intelsat said it would no longer provide services to Iranian channels, including Press TV, as of July 1. The decision has been made under the pretext that the company should be “abiding by” the sanctions against the president of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Ezatollah Zarghami.

Press TV has learned that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) - an agency of the US Treasury Department - is behind the pressure on Intelsat.

“This violates fundamental principles of freedom and liberty and if we seek the truth, the truth needs a free and open exchange of ideas in order to be found and I am appalled at what is happening domestically in the United States and by extension this is another example of that same thinking or I should say non-thinking or thug-like behavior that is being practiced in the international community as well,” Peterson added.

By Press TV

 

The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.