The British government's removal of Press TV from the Sky platform is a gross act of state intervention in the private media market even regardless of the fact that it is an obvious clampdown on freedom of the press.
The Office of Communications (Ofcom) ordered the News International, which runs the Sky cable TV to stop broadcasting Press TV and the private company complied.
Yet the very fact that the platform owned by Rupert Murdoch saw no problem with airing Press TV means the private media firm was interested in continuation of cooperation with the Iranian broadcaster and Ofcom interrupted that process.
Indeed, it was Ofcom, not Sky that removed the Iranian news channel.
That is not to say Sky shed tears over the issue, yet it goes against Britain's claims that it allows free flow of information and supports freedom of the press while the state TV watchdog 'orders' a private firm to change its arrangements in line with London's interests.
The move is very similar to government threats of ordering public networking websites including Facebook to block some of their customers' accounts during and immediately after the August 2011 unrest because a process against the British establishment's lies was underway on the internet.
Indeed, there is no justification for Ofcom to limit a news channel's access to broadcasting platforms as there is no such justification for the government to ban certain Facebook accounts, or prevent all the books of a certain author from being printed because officials did not like part of one of his books.
After all, Press TV did have contractual agreements with Sky and the government intervention killed the economic exchange.
Sky could have ended Press TV contract for lack of financial commitment to their deal or for the sheer fact that Sky officials did not want the Iranian news channel to use their platform but the problem here is that it was a state body, which ordered the removal.
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