Cross-posted from Potkin Azarmehr
When Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani was the guest speaker at the Asia Society and Foreign Policy Relations, he was asked if people in Iran were allowed to watch satellite channels in Iran.
He smiled and replied with one of his clever statements that are neither false nor tell the whole truth, by saying “In Iran everyone has easy access to satellite, you see satellite dishes even on the roof tops throughout the Iranian villages.”
Of course the true answer is that owning satellite dishes and satellite receiver equipments in Iran is illegal and the regime makes it even more difficult by jamming signals both locally and at source, but the public are so fed up with the nonsense which is aired from the state TV that they risk the punishments and try to watch the satellite channels despite all its possible dire consequences.
And interestingly just when Rouhani was pulling the wool over the eyes of his American audiences, tanks and bulldozers in Shiraz had come to the streets to crush people’s confiscated dishes and receiver equipments.
And of course “Death to America” written on an American flag marked with foot prints on it were part and parcel of the festivity:
Gene adds: On the other hand, I found this interesting: For years this website showed that Harry’s Place was blocked by the Islamic Republic’s firewall.
But recently the same website has shown it to be freely available in Iran:
How accurate this is, or what it means, I have no idea. If we have any readers in Iran, perhaps they could tell us more.
