TEHRAN -- Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati has urged that the law banning Iranians from using satellite devices should be modified.

Speaking on Tuesday to the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA), which belongs to Iran’s Majlis, he said, “Modification of the law is really essential, because the law totally bans everybody from using satellite dishes and receivers, while most of people use them.”

“Satellite channels can be helpful in advertising cultural productions, providing the law authorizes everybody to use satellite dishes and receivers,” Jannati said.   

The law also prohibits Iranian manufacturers, film studios and labels from advertising their productions on foreign satellite channels.

Earlier last month, some film producers got into trouble by broadcasting their films’ trailers on GEM TV, a Persian-language entertainment satellite channel with headquarters located in Dubai. 

The Tehran Public Court ruled that Iranian movie theaters must stop screening the films, including “We Won’t Be Habituated” by Ebrahim Ebrahimian.

However, the producers claimed that the channel broadcasted the movie trailers without permission from them.

Film distributors in Iran have always said that reluctance by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) to air their trailers force them to advertise on foreign satellite channels.

Jannati asked IRIB to cooperate with producers and film distributors in advertising their movies.   

Photo: Culture Minister Ali Jannati delivers a speech in an undated photo. (Tasnim/Mohammad-Ali Marizad)
  
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