British media authority Ofcom has revoked the licence to Iranian broadcasting channel Press TV on January 20, and the channel has been removed from Sky platform. The decision was taken after Press TV was found guilty of breaching rules of editorial control, and Press TV failed to pay a previous £100,000 fine imposed last year. The struggle between Ofcom and Press TV erupted in 2009, with the “Maziar Bahari case”: Maziar Bahari is a Newsweek and Channel 4 journalist who was interviewed by Press TV while detained in Tehran after the June 2009 elections. After investigations, Ofcom found that the real editorial control of the English channel of the Iranian TV was in Tehran, and accused Press TV of several breaches of UK broadcasting code. Press TV accused Ofcom’s decision to be just a move toward an UK attack against Iran, silencing an inconvenient voice of the British-American actions in the Middle East- Gulf area. After the expulsion of the Iranian representatives in November, now Tehran has to welcome back home also its journalistic staff, while international pressure is really increasing in the effort to stop its nuclear programme.
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