Canada’s targeting of Iranian media exposes Western hypocrisy: Tehran

Tehran has slammed Canada’s fresh sanctions on Iranian media news outlets, saying the move is in violation of people’s basic rights and exposes the West’s empty rhetoric regarding free access to information and freedom of expression.

“The US government’s sanctions lunacy has turned into a virus that is rapidly spreading to its friends,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said in a post on his Instagram account on Friday.

Canada on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on six Iranian individuals and four entities over alleged human rights violations in the country and continued actions to destabilize regional peace and security.

The newly sanctioned individuals and entities include Iranian military figures, the Constitutional Council, and the Assembly of Experts.

Kan’ani said the list also includes Keyhan newspaper, Tasnim news agency, Nour News and Fars news agency, as well as the current and former heads of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting along with an IRIB reporter.

He added that it is not the first time Canada has sanctioned prominent Iranian media outlets and journalists, pointing to its recent sanctions on Press TV.

Canada imposes sanctions on Iran’s Press TV, police force following foreign-backed riots

Canada imposes sanctions on a wide range of Iranian institutions and persons, including Press TV, over alleged human rights violations.

The Iranian spokesperson said Canada and its anti-Iranian Western allies have targeted Iranian people with economic sanctions while depriving them of the right to express their opinions, “unless they speak like them and in their cultural language, such as ‘Iran International’, ‘Manoto,’ and other [channels].”

“Resorting to force and sanctions to prevent the voice of others from being heard by a country whose human rights claims have deafened the world is not so surprising,” Kan’ani added.

He said Canada tends to show its apartheid behaviors occasionally, a proof of which, he said, is the discovery of mass graves of indigenous children in that country.

But Ottawa has now launched a “media apartheid,” he said.

“When [empty] slogans are unmasked and logic becomes weak, there is no option but to resort to force and sanction. Sanction has become the international language of the US and its allies,” the spokesperson said.

Canada has so far imposed three packages of sanctions against Iran over alleged “gross and systematic human rights violations” during the nationwide riots that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in hospital three days after collapsing at a police station last month.

Leader says riots enemy plot devised in ‘clumsy’ reaction to nation’s progress

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the enemy acted “passively” and “clumsily” in the recent riots across the country.

Protests erupted across Iran after the passing of Amini. However, some extremist elements derailed the demonstrations and incited violence against security forces. Western-backed media outlets have also encouraged acts of violence.

The foreign-backed violent riots have also claimed dozens of lives from both security forces and ordinary people as the Western media and Persian-language news networks continue to provoke riots in Iran.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir