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Ahmadinejad Channel 4 message 'in the clear'Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:32:03 GMT Media regulator Ofcom has ruled that the controversial Channel 4 Christmas message by Iran's president has not breached broadcast code. After Britain's Office of Communications -- more often known as Ofcom -- received 295 complaints against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's alternative Christmas message on Britain's Channel 4, Ofcom stepped in to review the contents of the message.The regulator said President Ahmadinejad's message "taken in its entirety would have been challenging and upsetting to a number of people". Ofcom, however, added that it had to consider the issue with a broadcaster's right to freedom of expression, explaining that the actual content of the speech was "non-confrontational, comprising as it did a message of goodwill to the UK audience". The Iranian president's message came in the tradition of the public-service British television broadcaster, which has been airing an alternative to the Queen's Christmas speech for 16 years now. Channel 4 had announced that the aim of the program was to provide a "different and sometimes challenging perspective, consistent with Channel 4's remit to be innovative and distinctive and serve the needs of a culturally diverse society". In his message, President Ahmadinejad blamed the decline in spiritual faith for the "current predicament in the world" and criticized the West for "tyrannical policies of prevailing global economic and political system". "If Christ was on Earth today undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers," he said in his seven-minute speech aired at 7:15 pm on Christmas day. Original Article: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86628§ionid=351020101 |
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