NileSat bans broadcast of Iranian TV channels

Islam Mohamed

In a bid to combat sectarian conflicts, Egypt’s NileSat has reportedly halted the broadcast of three Iranian TV channels for two years, including English-language Press TV news network.

The Arabic-language Saudi daily newspaper Okaz, citing an informed source, said Sunday that the regional satellite provider halted the broadcast of Press TV as well as entertainment and movie channels of iFilm in English and Arabic languages.

Earlier, some informed sources had reported that Arab satellite companies had agreed to cancel their contracts with Iranian media outlets in the region.

NileSat’s move is an outcome of a summit which was held in the holy city of Mecca in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The summit stressed the need to besiege the Iranian satellite channels which are broadcast by the Arab satellites.

A number of public campaigns called for the banning of Iranian channels. NileSat has been decried for broadcasting some Iranian channels which serve Iran’s agenda in the region.

Researcher Mohammad Alaa Eddin, an expert on Iranian affairs, said that NileSat’s move was “natural”.

“Iran’s sabotage activities have been on the rise in the region. There are many satellite channels which broadcast sectarian content serving the Iranian agenda,” Alaa Eddin told THE REFERENCE.

“These channels are part of the Persian expansion scheme in the Middle East. More Iranian channels will banned soon,” he added.