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World Jewish News
Guardian: British Foreign Office Condemns Channel for Transmission of Ahmadinejad's Christmas Address
26.12.2008
The British government has criticised Channel 4's decision to broadcast an "alternative" Christmas message by the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Foreign Office representative said that this transmission could have caused offense around the world1. "President Ahmadinejad has during his time in office made a series of appalling anti-Semitic statements," she said. "The British media are rightly free to chose their own stories, but to allow the Iranian President to go on the Christmas air could have been offensive and strange not just to British citizens, but for residents of friendly countries."
Channel 4's traditional "alternative" Christmas message is supposed to be a contrast to the Queen's speech. The channel purposely invites the least appropriate people to participate in it, but the choice of Ahmadinejad, who is known for an aggressive stance towards Israel and western countries, "had overstepped all possible limits."
Speaking in Farsi with English subtitles, the President of Iran said: "Jesus, the Son of Virgin Mary, is the symbol of justice, love for our fellow human beings, the fight against tyranny, discrimination and injustice. If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying and expansionist powers.
The content of the speech has caused arraignment of the Jewish community of Great Britain. Louise Ellman, chairwoman of the Labour Jewish Movement, accused Channel 4 of giving "a platform to a dangerous fanatic who denies the Holocaust while preparing for another and claims homosexuality does not exist while his regime executes gay people."
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