Press TV’s UK Bank Account Frozen

Press TV’s UK bank account was frozen. The Times of London writes of the latest woes for Iran’s English language news station:

The National Westminster Bank has frozen and will shortly close Press TV’s main trading account, which is believed to contain more than £100,000, in what its supporters see as a politically motivated act designed to silence a dissenting voice.

A NatWest spokesman declined to explain the move. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office insisted that it was a “private commercial decision over which the Government has no control”.

And Press TV claims the bank plans to close the account by February.

• The station ain’t getting much sympathy in the UK these days. And it won’t get any from me either.
• Ken Livingstone will stop presenting his regular book show, apparently due to pressure from his Labour party colleagues who found the Iranian association too odious.
• Offcom, Britain’s media regulatory body, censured George Galloway, saying his show was just a vehicle for Galloway’s own polemics against Israel, breaching standards of presenting balanced viewpoints. British viewers haven’t forgotten Galloway’s fawning interview with his boss, Mahmoud Ahmadinjad.
• Lauren Booth’s Mavi Marmara special was also censurd by Offcom. The idea of Booth — who just happened to spearhead the flotilla movement and foolishly got stuck in Gaza — making a show about the Mavi Marmara was too ridiculous for everyone but Press TV and its Iranian masters.
• Offcom’s also investigating Press TV complicity in the arrest of Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari. Bahari was arrested in Iran covering the country’s 2009 post-election protests.
• Last but not least, Press TV reporter Nick Ferrari quit in protest of the station’s coverage of the elections and protests.

So Galloway and Booth may have trouble cashing their next paycheck, and Red Ken’s bailing out . Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of people.