Iran Jams German Satellite

In troubling but hardly surprising news, the satellite signal of Deutsche Welle, Germany's state broadcasting network, was deliberately attacked by the theocratic regime of Iran last month. And, it's not the first time that satellite signals have been jammed from getting into Iran.

According to the report, the French national radio regulatory agency Agence Nationale des Fréquences wrote to the Iranian Ministry of Communication saying that on December 7 and December 8 signals had been detected that looked like "deliberate interference" with the DW satellite.

The affected satellite was the Hot-Bird satellite belonging to Eutelsat. The satellite operators apparently reacted to the disturbance by increasing the broadcasting power, whereupon the disturbance signal was also strengthened, cutting out an Arabian language TV broadcast from DW.

The origin of the disturbance was traced to the area of Tehran. Similar disturbances coming from Iran were already detected by the French authority in May and June 2009.

Notably, interference has been previously detected coming from Cuba and traced to a location about 20 miles outside Havana.

Reports also indicate that Iran has been jamming signals from U.S. and British communications satellites which are used by many European and Middle Eastern countries besides Iran. Specific emphasis is applied to Western media reports of Iranian protests.

Experts have determined that signal interference has affected the BBC, Voice of America (VOA) Persian Network, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and U.S. supported Arabic language Radio Sawa.

I suggest the Iranian regime will ultimately lose the battle to shut off communications with the outside world. In any event, Iranian authorities have not responded to formal objections to and condemnations of the satellite jamming.