Lebanon's Al-Manar television said a French call to ban the station from broadcasting in Europe goes against the principle of freedom and blamed Israel for fuelling misunderstanding.
| Yup. Them damn Jews again. |
France's CSA broadcasting authority has called for a ban on the Lebanese Hizballah-run Al-Manar's broadcasts to Europe, saying the channel, accused by critics of being anti-Semitic, breached an earlier agreement not to show programmes that could incite hatred among religions.  French Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin said on Thursday that Al-Manar's programmes were "incompatible" with French values, and that he would seek the means to legally suspend Al-Manar and any channels that could provoke hatred or violence. Speaking to Aljazeera in Beirut on Friday, Al-Manar TV News Director Hassan Fadlallah said the calls to take the channel off the air in Europe were part and parcel of Israeli attempts to stir up problems between France and the Muslim world.
| "They hate us because we're so successful..." |
He said Al-Manar was authorised to broadcast by satellite inside the European Union just two weeks ago after it signed an agreement with France's CSA not to incite hatred or violence. Should the channel be banned from broadcasting in Europe through Eutelsat, Fadlallah said viewers in Europe would be able to watch Al-Manar through other satellites. Reuters further quoted Fadlallah as saying, "We were astonished to hear the French prime minister saying that Al-Manar's programmes do not fit with French values, which we reject."
| Does that statement make any sense to anyone? Bueller? |
"Our programmes are based on cultural, Islamic and Arab values that a billion people believe in, and it fits with some French values like freedom, justice and human rights," Fadlallah said.
| "Freedom for the state, justice for me but not for thee, and the right to violent behavior. Everybody believes in that, right?" |
Al-Manar is the mouthpiece of the Hizballah movement, which played a major role in forcing an end to Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon. The United States classes Hizballah as a terrorist group, but France does not.
| France didn't have 251 of its troops blown up while they were asleep in their barracks, either. |
UPDATE (Hat tip LGF):
Less than ten days after Hezbollah's "al-Manar" television station was permitted to broadcast in France, one of its commentators has stirred uproar after he accused Israel of "repeated attempts in the past several years to spread AIDS throughout the Arab world". The commentator, who was defined as an expert on the "Zionist entity", described at length how Israel has been trying to spread dangerous diseases, including AIDS, in the Arab world. The French regulatory body, which granted "al-Manar" permission to broadcast in the country, announced on Tuesday it would demand the French parliament to immediately cease its transmissions.
Update to the update:
If you follow the first update link, be sure to read the comments. |