A Thai satellite company said Wednesday it stopped airing broadcasts of the Al-Manar television channel after learning it was tied to Hizbullah, a company spokesman said. The broadcasts of Al-Manar were halted last Friday after just three days of a "test run" beamed through THAICOM satellites, said Piyanuch Sujpluem, a spokeswoman for Shin Satellite Public Company.
Piyanuch said the contract with Al-Manar was a purely commercial deal "without knowledge that such a station had connections to a terrorist group." She said the deal was terminated after the company found out about the channel's background from foreign media. The US government in 2006 declared the station a "terrorist entity." Al-Manar could not be reached for comment.