Somebody is deliberately jamming the satellite signals from the controversial Press TV channel transmitting from Eutelsat’s Hotbird. Press TV is already in trouble from the UK’s breoadcasting regulator Ofcom, but now it seems somebody else has taken a dislike to the Iranian focussed channel.

Press TV says “it has learned that the cause of the problem is a clean carrier on the [Iranian state-backed] IRIB bouquet of channels” which uses the same Hotbird transponder. It is a fact that when an attempt is made to deliberately jam a specific channel the other nearby an d adjacent channels on the transponder are also affected.

This is not the first time IRIB signals have been interrupted in recent months. The BBC’s Monitoring Service, quoting Press TV, says that on March 10th, the broadcast of IRIB international channels on the Hotbird satellite was interrupted for two hours.

The report from the Press TV website also alleges “On 19th January, British technicians operating from Bahrain also sent jamming signals to block IRIB channels on the Hotbird satellite, including provincial channels and a number of international channels such as Press TV, Al-Alam, Al-Kowsar, Jam-e Jam and Sahar.”

Meanwhile, Egypt’s Supreme Council says it has refused to return Press TV equipment confiscated in Cairo in May.

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Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite