Sahar TV Banned in France for Airing Antisemitic Shows Zahra's Blue Eyes and Al-Shatat

Newscaster:The French Higher Council for Radio and Television decided, on February 10, to cancel [the broadcasting of] Iranian Sahar TV, which belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran, on the Hotbird satellite. This was the result of its airing the Al-Shatat series and 'Zahra's Blue Eyes,' which, naturally, had various ramifications because it wanted to express the truth, to tell the truth, and to highlight the truth in everybody's minds, but not as the Zionists want. Our only crime is that we wanted to side with the oppressed. Our only crime is that we wanted to be followers of Imam Hussein's teaching, peace be upon him - Hussein who taught us, and indeed continues to teach us, how to face the aggressors.

Newscaster A: Following the ban on the Al-Manar TV broadcasts in France, we see that the Sahar TV broadcasts have also been banned in a country that has claims to be free and democratic.

Newscaster B: Yes, unfortunately… As you've said, France has banned the broadcasts of the Sahar Global network due to anti-Israeli programming. The French Higher Council for Radio and Television passed on this decision to the Eutelsat company. Sharif-Zadeh, director of the Sahar network, had this to say:

Mohsan Sharif-Zadeh: Recently we've aired a series called 'Zahra's Blue Eyes' and a series called 'Al-Shatat.' This latter was produced in an Arab country, and we aired it here on the Sahar network. Much of it has not yet been broadcast. We've only aired 10 episodes. They used these series as a pretext.

We are continuing to broadcast. We are trying to deal with this through our political channels and in human rights forums in order to have this decision reconsidered. We hope our efforts bear fruit. Obviously, we began this trend to support the Palestinian people and to present the false foundations of the Zionist regime. Naturally, we will continue all programming as long as broadcasts have not been stopped by Eutelsat. Even afterwards we will continue our programming.