INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
TEHRAN- The director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has criticized the sanctions imposed on the broadcaster by the
West, asserting that they are a flagrant violation of the right to free expression and a clear example of "media dictatorship."In an
interview, Peyman Jebelli made the statement while commenting on the monopolistic and authoritarian tactics of anti-Iran media as well as
the West's enforcement of stringent sanctions on the IRIB and its affiliates in response to recent foreign-backed riots in Iran.Speaking to
claim to be champions of free speech, democracy and respect for society, one of the examples of which is the U.S
organizations act to boycott the IRIB, they demonstrate how easily restrict free speech, with which they have long blinded the eyes of the
media as a platform for expressing people's views and managing public opinion will do its job, and their media will also do their job, and
believe that the IRIB, an ensuring transparency media outlet that is specific to the borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, breaches the
law, and they are unwilling to even permit their presence on satellites."This is one of the very evident examples of media tyranny that we
have plainly encountered in recent events," the chairman of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting highlighted.The IRIB Chief Jebelli, Ahmad
Norouzi, the IRIB Vice Director General Mohsen Barmahani, the Director of Press TV's Programs Department Yousef Pour-Anvari, and the IRIB
Senior Correspondents Ali Rezvani and Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour were all the targets of sanctions imposed by the U.S
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in November.OFAC alleged that amid recent unrest over the death of a young woman of
Kurdish heritage in Tehran, the IRIB broadcast "hundreds of coerced confessions of Iranian, dual national, and foreign inmates in Iran."Iran
witnessed riots following the passing of Mahsa Amini on September 16
Medicine Organization's official assessment found that Amini's death was brought on by disease rather than claimed blows to the skull or
other important body parts.As Western countries, especially the United States, offered assistance, rioters went on the rampage, viciously
assaulting security personnel and seriously damaging public property.The U.S
restrictions came a week after the European Union sanctioned a number of Iranian organizations and persons for purported "human rights
breaches" in the aftermath of the country's recent foreign-backed riots.
