October 14, 2022
Since September 26, signals originating from Iran have been jamming two Eutelsat satellites that sent foreign broadcasts into Iran, the French satellite operator said October 7.
“The interferences harmfully affect the transmission of several digital TV and radio channels broadcasting in Persian from outside of Iran, as well as other channels,” the company said in a news release. It did not identify the individual stations jammed, but BBC Farsi, Manoto, Radio Farda and Iran International all use Eutelsat satellites.
Just hours before Eutelsat issued its statement, the international hacktivist group Anonymous said it was jamming 48 of the Islamic Republic’s radio and television outlets and would continue to do so as long as the regime blocked the signals from opposition groups.
The jamming is disrupting services from the operator’s Hot Bird 13C and Eutelsat 3D satellites in geostationary orbit, Eutelsat external communications director Anita Baltagi said.
The Iranian government has not commented on Eutelsat’s jamming.
According to Eutelsat, it used a “specially designed interference detection system” to conclude that all uplink transmissions interfering with the two satellites originate within Iran.
The operator said its technical experts “have been working around the clock with affected customers to mitigate the impact of the interference” on its services as much as possible.
“Eutelsat has immediately notified the relevant authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran, demanding that the harmful jamming operations be immediately and permanently stopped,” the company said.
It has also reminded Iranian authorities that intentional jamming is “explicitly prohibited” by regulations under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations agency.