press freedom. not for Iran . certainly not in the land of the free

The writer has a point. And it is well made too.   There is no freedom of Information in the US . No press freedom.  No counters  that point to and challenge their own propaganda press will be allowed. Not in the land of the free. 

There is no state of war between Iran and the USA. You can travel there as a tourist if you like–actually more easily than you can go to Cuba. Iranians can visit the US too, though they probably will get a pretty serious going over by the ICE crew at their port of entry.

Now, however, the US has taken a really stupid step. It has blocked the carrying of Iran’s state-owned English-language PressTV television broadcast on the Galaxy 19 satellite that was allowing the 24-hour newscast to be viewed, at least by some people, in the US. 

What is the government afraid of? What message are they sending to the rest of the world?

Well I can tell you. They’re afraid Americans might hear about the kids with cancer in Iran who are dying because they cannot obtain needed chemotherapy drugs because of the embargo. They’re afraid Americans might see stories about the true medieval tyranny in the US ally of Bahrain, where the majority Shia population is being viciously repressed by the monarchy there, with the aid of US military equipment. They’re afraid, perhaps, that Americans might see some American journalist like me talking about the 172 known children who have been killed by US drones authorized for deadly strikes in Yemen and Pakistan during the years President Obama has been president — a story that has been effectively blacked out by the compliant US corporate media.

And the message they’re sending is that the US is not the much-ballyhooed “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” that it claims to be. It is a land of ill-informed sheep and the home of a bunch of cowards — cowards in government who are afraid of the truth and the open debate over facts and ideas, and cowards among the broader public who willingly allow these steady encroachments on our freedom in the name of “fighting terror.”

The same kind of campaign has long been underway to silence the English-language broadcasts of Al Jazzeera in the US, though many well-known US journalists are today working for that news network, and though it is one of the best sources of reporting in the Middle East — far more informative than any of the US networks, with their short-funded foreign staffs and their propensity to helicopter in a correspondent at the last minute when some Americans become a focus of a news story (and sometimes to fake even that by pretending the correspondent is on the scene, as CBS and CNN have been wont to do on occasion).

It’s a sad day for America when the government blots out a source of news.

I have no objection to politicians decrying PressTV as a propaganda organ. Fair’s fair. But to prevent people from viewing it is something else again. Take about a nanny state!

Fortunately, there’s still the internet. So I say, check it out. Go towww.presstv.ir and read the articles on the Iranian TV website. You can also click on the button at the top of their home page and watch the broadcast live. Make your own decision. Don’t let the censors in Washington decide for you what you can and cannot watch.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/11/freedom-of-information-takes-another-hit-in-the-united-states/