As Friday’s election gave way to a weekend of riots in the capital city of Tehran and accusations that the Interior Ministry rigged the outcome in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, multiple foreign media outlets are reporting efforts by the Iranian government to control the media reports coming out of the nation.
Al-Arabiya television has reportedly been forbidden from working in the capital for a week, while Nederland 2 has had its journalist and cameraman ordered to leave the country. The BBC is also claiming that the government is responsible for jamming which has caused intermittant service disruptions of its Farsi-language service.
The primary cell phone network in Tehran has also been cut off since Saturday evening, while the government is apparently blocking several popular websites, including Facebook and YouTube, likely also part of an effort to prevent unapproved reports from coming out of the nation.
Former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi is seeking to have the election results overturned, amid reports that he has been placed under house arrest for calling his supporters to publicly contest the outcome. Ahmadinejad has rejected allegations of election fraud, and likened the furore to the aftermath of a soccer match.
Reliable Poll predicted landslide victory for Ahmadinejad
It would be great if the author or Gareth Porter, or any other trusted Antiwar contributor shed a light on:
Why, UNLIKE the Western mass Media, THREE DAYS before the election, Voice of America,(referring to two US pollsters), accurately guessed a resounding victory for Ahmadinejed? (ratio of 34 to 14)
http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/1085.html
Why Mousavi, even before the counting began declared victory, heating up the atmosphere and raising the unrealistic hopes of his supporters who are rightfully fed up with their backward regime ?
Why, (as seen on a CNN video) a truck dumped a load of rocks / stones among the Tehran supporters of Mousavi (to be used as weapons against the riot police ?). Who were behind the dumping? Didn’t they know the punishment for such an act (according Iranian Constitution) is death (by hanging)?
Can Ben Menache, (an Israeli author) be believed claiming, in 1980s, one of Mousavi’s friends was a CIA agent? Or is there any credibility on the (Internet) allegations of his ties with Mossad?
And the big question…… was the June 9 prediction of Voice of America similar to NIE, trying to foil an ugly uprising… and why VOA continues to indirectly discredit the mass media who are still shouting “..widespread rigging, election fraud”?
Western and Iranian government pollsters new what Americans knew. Was there a need to rig the election? With such a wide margin….obviously not.
The intentional trashing and ridiculing of the “Iranian Election” by Western corporate mass media was unified and well coordinated ……who is the coordinator?