Ben Mutzabaugh covers the rather bizarre story that
Iran has threatened to bar – and possibly impound – aircraft that fly into its airspace unless they use the name “Persian Gulf” on their in-flight monitors
They’ve even revoked the immigration status of a Greek flight attendant working for an Iranian carrier who referred to the body of water as the Arabian Gulf — “Due to his inappropriate and irresponsible behavior.”
Airlines have just a couple of weeks to comply, and if they repeat the offense they risk having their aircraft impounded when they reach Iran.
The U.M. agrees with Iran’s naming convention, but this still rather smacks of a dictatorship’s enforcement of Newspeak.
Funny, I see “Arabian Gulf” as newspeak. I mean it has only been called Persian Gulf for like 2500 years. Arabian Gulf was invented in the 1960s.
@yosithezet – choice of words isnt’ the newspeak issue to me but the use of government force to dictate particular usage.
It’s a long standing issue.
They canceled the Islamic Solidarity Games over it. Apparently that part of the world has no sense of irony.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8465235.stm