Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON – U.S.-based television broadcasts to Iran are being jammed by transmitters in Cuba, leaving several stations unable to beam their programming for more than a week, according to one of the broadcasters and the U.S. government.

“This is really an unprecedented situation,” said Kenneth Tomlinson, the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. “In terms of international communications this really brands these people as real outlaws.”

The jamming started July 6 and went on full-time through this past Saturday, but has been more sporadic in recent days.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. international broadcasts including Radio and TV Marti to Cuba, issued a resolution Tuesday complaining about the jamming, which the organization said is preventing Iranians from “receiving intelligible reception of the Voice of America’s televised news programs.” The resolution calls for a formal protest by the U.S. government as well as international pressure on Cuba and Iran.

The jamming also has knocked out broadcasts by U.S.-based Iranian dissidents. In a letter dated July 11, Loral Skynet, the company that owns the Telstar 12 satellite beaming the broadcasts, said it had pinpointed the interference to a location in the vicinity of Havana.

“We’ve changed frequencies eight or nine times now and every time we change frequencies it’s literally a matter of minutes before we’re jammed again,” said Kourosh Abbassi, a spokesman for Azadi Television, one of several California-based stations beaming programming into Iran. “It just shows you how the Cuban government is working with the Islamic regime.”

Phone calls to officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington went unreturned this week.

Cuban-American groups have long pointed to Cuba’s ties in the Middle East, especially in Iran, and even accused Havana of selling dual-use technology to Tehran that could be used to build biological weapons.

“One should never be surprised at Cuba’s capacity to interfere with movements designed to bring about freedom and democracy,” said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation. “Cuba is Iran’s best ally in the region.”

Cuba already jams U.S. broadcasts of Miami-based Radio and TV Marti to the island. Earlier this year the United States tried to get around the jamming by using a military aircraft and a satellite. Tomlinson said more of that is planned, but acknowledged that Cuba’s jamming of the broadcasts to Iran brings up new questions about the ability to use satellites to beam into Fidel Castro’s island.

Tomlison said Cuba could not itself jam the satellite used earlier this year because of its position in the southern sky, but that it could be jammed from another location.

—

(c) 2003 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Visit the Sun-Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-07-15-03 2009EDT