March 20, 2010
EU nations are determined to take action to end Iran’s “unacceptable” jamming of satellite broadcasts and Internet censorship, according to a text agreed by European ambassadors in Brussels.
“The EU calls on the Iranian authorities to stop the jamming of satellite broadcasting and Internet censorship and to put an end to this electronic interference immediately,” said the text prepared for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
“The EU is determined to pursue these issues and to act with a view to put an end to this unacceptable situation,” the EU nations added in the document seen by AFP.
The EU will call on Iran “to ensure the right to freedom of expression” which Tehran has signed up to under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The initiative came notably from Britain, France, Germany with support from the EU’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.
Iranian authorities have cracked down on the media and arrested scores of journalists since anti-government protests erupted after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election last June.
The Islamic regime has also resorted to communications blackouts, targeting the BBC’s Persian-language broadcasts among others “to prevent the people of Iran from freely exercising their right to information,” the ministers wrote.
Nearly 70 foreign radio and television stations that transmit via the Eutelsat satellite to Iran were jammed on February 11, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, they said.
Britain, France and Germany asked the European Union on Wednesday to take measures to curb Iran’s ability to censor domestic opposition and to jam foreign satellite broadcasts.
In a joint letter to Ashton, the three countries’ foreign ministers called for tighter limits on sales of technology that could be used by Iran for repression and censorship.
Ashton on Friday called on the Iranian authorities to “stop the jamming of satellite broadcasting and Internet flows immediately.”
The EU High Representative for foreign and security affairs “is ready to engage in dialogue to reach a negotiated solution, but a dialogue takes two,” a spokesman for Ashton said.
“The only thing that counts are results. She and the member states are ready to take the necessary steps to accompany the United Nations Security Council process,” he added.
Last week the United States said that the battle for human rights is increasingly being fought on the Internet as China, Iran and other states try to block access by political activists and others.
While the EU has consistently said it will wait for the UN to set further sanctions against Iran, there is increasing impatience in Brussels that veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China are not going to back such a move any time soon.
The main issue is over Iran’s nuclear programme which the West wants halted but which Tehran insists is purely for civil energy purposes.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday the time was nearing for sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, as Tehran has rejected Western efforts to find a negotiated solution.
Merkel’s comments came a day after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the European Union was ready to impose unilateral sanctions as Western powers struggle to forge a consensus within the UN Security Council.
Ashton has been voicing the issue on the sidelines of international Quartet talks on the Middle East in Moscow and plans to travel to China next month.
Source: AFP
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