Press TV

 ( Official Website ) 

In a 2014 article on the website, the Canadian writer Brandon Martinez described Auschwitz as having been an appealing place where Jews were able to participate in "cultural and leisure activities". He rejected the existence of gas chambers during The Holocaust and the use of Zyklon B for the mass killings of European Jews. To make his assertions he drew on claims made by Holocaust deniers Mark Webber and David Irving.

In November 2013, the Press TV website reprinted an opinion piece in its 'Viewpoints' section, first written by M.I. Bhat for Veterans Today, although Bhat was a regular columnist for Press TV as well. The article blamed Jews for their fate in the Holocaust and accepted "the Nazi regime’s anti-Jewish conspiracy theories as historical fact". Bhat queried whether American Jews were "incubating another Hitler".

Held in Evin Prison, Bahari was accused of spying for the CIA, MI6 and Mossad, and was detained for 118 days. Bahari alleged that a 10-second Press TV interview and 'confession' that the western media was guilty of fomenting the protests had been preceded by torture, and was given under the threat of execution. The nature of the interview, that it was a forced confession, was not disclosed to viewers of the footage. Having to talk complete rubbish before a camera to save his life "was like a rape”, he told The Sunday Times in 2012. "It went against the very essence of me". Bahari is not the only Iranian prisoner who has been coerced with a following broadcast of the supposed confession.

In December 2012, Press TV aired a report entitled "Alberta takes aboriginal kids from parents at high rate" in which Joshua Blakeney, Press TV's Calgary correspondent, claimed that Alberta's child protective services were engaged in the human trafficking of First Nations children. Blakeney stated that "Some upset parents allege that there is a profit motive behind what they refer to as Canada's so-called child protective services" and asserted that an anti-terrorism squad, called INSET, was responsible for the abductions.

One of the veiled women interviewed in the report (who was not identified) claimed that her "aboriginal children were taken by a squad of 32 police officers." Another woman interviewed stated that "It definitely is a money-making scheme, because a lot of native children have been sold into adoption, but it is also used as an assimilation program and a genocidal program." The report also showed written messages of "Help me! Now!!", which were allegedly written by abducted children.

The allegations in the report were immediately denied by Government officials and Native leaders. Cindy Blackstock, an associate professor at the University of Alberta and executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada denied the report was true, stating that "The factors driving aboriginal children into care have been well-known for 15 years; it's poverty, poor housing and substance abuse. ... The federal government provides significantly less funding on reserves than for all other Canadians ... but I have never in my life heard of any military undertones to this."

Blakeney has also claimed in reports published or broadcast by Press TV, that the appearance of Canada's new $20 bill was evidence that Canada "remained an imperialist nation" and that "90% of Canadian youth felt stressed about careers." Blakeney subsequently claimed that his reports for Press TV are "defiantly illuminating the skeletons in Canada’s closet."

Another report made several charges against the Canadian government, including:

• Secret plans to "steal indigenous children";
• "Ignorance of the First Nation land rights";
• Jailing refugees without cause; and
• using excessive force to suppress student protests.

Another program interviewed Alfred Lambremont Webre, who was described as an "international lawyer" based in Vancouver. Webre stated Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is an "out and out Zionist" who is engaging in the "same repressive policies within Canada that Israel follows within its own territories against the Palestinian people." Webre then described a conspiracy between Vancouver police and serial killer Robert Pickton "to commit ritual Satanic murders with high-ranking politicians." Finally, Webre claimed that Queen Elizabeth II abducted 10 Aboriginal children in 1964. Concluding his comments, Webre described Canada as "the ultimate Zionist state under the British Crown and under Israel."

In response, Paul Heinbecker, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation at the University of Waterloo, has stated that Press TV is highlighting Canada's First Nations in order to "negate" Canadian reports of human rights allegations against Iran. Heinbecker stated that "The human rights situations in the two countries are scarcely comparable ... but our own very real shortcomings on Aboriginal issues ... are fodder for the Iranian efforts." Iranian native Payam Akhavan, a professor of international law at McGill University, stated that "Canada's diplomatic posture has elevated its ranking in the regime's demonology charts." Ed Corrigan, an immigration lawyer and former councillor for London, Ontario, is a regular guest on Press TV. Corrigan, who has said that "There's very few people in Canada who have more expertise on Middle East politics than I do," argues that Press TV is demonstrating the "international opinion" of Canada's treatment of its native peoples, explaining that "We tend to forget about our conquest of North America ... but most countries in the world see it as a colonial exercise."