leading the channel to complain that Queen Elizabeth and the royal family don’t like it.
Ofcom fined PressTV, the English language television outlet of the Islamic Republic, £100,000 ($156,000) for violating the privacy of journalist Maziar Bahari by broadcasting a supposed confession the government videotaped while he was in prison during the 2009 post-election unrest.
Ofcom had considered revoking PressTV’s broadcast license in the UK, but decided to limit its action to the fine. The fine is the highest possible amount for this kind of offense.
Ofcom is the government-funded media watchdog in the United Kingdom.
PressTV shot back furiously at the fine and allegations of violating Bahari’s privacy, citing unnamed independent analysts saying that Ofcom was under political pressure to silence PressTV for its critical coverage of the British royal family.
“Independent analysts say Ofcom is under mounting pressure from the British royal family to silence PressTV’s critical voice,” the channel said in a statement.
“PressTV had criticized the royal family’s lavish expenditures at a time of great economic difficulty in the UK,” the statement read.
The channel’s statement also alleged that the royal family “exercises an overarching power over all branches” of the British government.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that independent investigators have found that PressTV faked dozens of news reports about US drone strikes in Somalia.
The Guardian wrote that PressTV had reported the deaths of 1,370 people in 56 American drone strikes, but said that research by the independent Bureau of Investigative Journalism has “found no evidence of the reported incidents.”
The newspaper said investigators found PressTV cited no sources for most of its reports and, where sources were used, they were unverifiable. “At least four reports are identical in all but place name and casualty numbers, and sources are only named in four of 56 drone strike reports,” the newspaper reported.
“No representatives from the United Nations, Amisom (the African Union Mission in Somalia), non-governmental organizations or journalists in Somalia were able to confirm the strikes,” it reported.
American journalist Jeremy Scahill, whose reporting has exposed secret CIA operations – including drone strikes – in Somalia, said PressTV’s reports may be partly explained by “benign misinterpretation” of reports on the ground, such as missile attacks being mistakenly identified as drone strikes.
A spokesperson for PressTV declined to comment on the allegations.