France pulls plug on Arab network

Posted by Robert on December 13, 2004 7:53 PM

Better late than never. From the [1] BBC, with thanks to all those who sent this in:

France's highest administrative court has banned a TV station on the grounds that it is inciting racial hatred. The Council of State ordered France-based satellite company Eutelsat to stop transmitting Lebanese station al-Manar within 48 hours.

The Council cited a 23 November broadcast in which a speaker accused Israel of deliberately disseminating Aids in Arab nations.

It said the channel had shown itself incapable of conforming to French law.

Al-Manar had been authorised to continue broadcasting in Europe by France's media watchdog after signing an undertaking not to incite hatred or violence.

But on 2 December French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called for the station to be taken off air for its "anti-Semitic" content "incompatible with French values".

This BBC story doesn't say what Al-Manar broadcast. This [2] older BBC story does:

The channel signed an undertaking not to incite hatred or violence....

Last week, monitors recorded a commentator on the channel speaking of what he called "Zionist attempts to transmit Aids to Arab countries".


Article printed from Jihad Watch: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2004/12/france-pulls-plug-on-arab-network.html

URLs in this post:
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4093579.stm
[2] http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/004150.php