Iranian media continues to be attacked by foreign entities

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

A string of attacks on Iranian media continues with reports of jamming signals coming from an unknown location interrupting broadcasts for two hours.

According to Iran’s Press TV, broadcasts of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s (IRIB) international channels on the Hotbird satellite provider were cut out for two hours by these signals.

High-power jamming signals were transmitted on the 12437 MHz frequency from 9:00 to 11:00 GMT on Saturday, March 10, 2012.

During this time, the broadcasts of the IRIB’s international channels were interrupted on multiple occasions.

The channels that were knocked out were Press TV, Iran’s 24-hour English-language international channel along with Al-Alam, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, Al-Kowsar, along with Sahar 1 and 2 channels.

The jamming of IRIB signals is one of many recent attacks on Iranian media outlets.

According to Press TV, British technicians operating out of Bahrain jammed IRIB channels, again on the Hotbird satellite, blocking provincial channels along with international stations like Press TV and others.

Hackers out of the United States and Israel have also launched cyber attacks on Press TV’s website, according to Press TV.

While this report is not independently confirmed as far as I know, it is far from unreasonable to believe that such activities are taking place given the previous cyber attacks on Iran.

The Stuxnet virus which targeted nuclear facilities in Iran has been linked to the United States and Israel, along with the related piece of malicious software known as Duqu.

Press TV reports that the first such attack occurred on December 9, 2011, at which time American and Israeli hackers targeted the Press TV website.

They report that this happened after Press TV aired footage of the American RQ-170 Sentinel stealth spy drone which had been captured by the Iranians after it illegally entered their airspace.

More recently, the Press TV website was hit by another cyber attack on March 5, reportedly by the same hackers.

Press TV reports that both of these attempted attacks were thwarted by security countermeasures taken by their technical team.

It is unclear how they know exactly where the attacks originated from, or how they know it was the same hackers.

Furthermore, I question how they knew that it was British individuals in Bahrain jamming their transmissions.

Unfortunately they do not provide additional details on these matters so many of my questions on this matter are left unanswered.

However, it seems reasonable to believe that the West would want to target Iranian media outlets since they are giving the alternative perspective which the United States does not want to get attention. 

This article first appeared at EndtheLie.com. Read other contributed articles by Madison Ruppert here.