Guess they changed their minds...
French broadcast regulators announced Tuesday they were seeking to pull a television station linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah off the satellite beaming its programmes within the European Union because of licence violations. The High Audiovisual Council (CSA) said it would ask France's superior administrative court to order the Eutelsat satellite company "to cease transmitting the station". The decision, which aims to cancel the licence the CSA gave to the Al-Manar station less than two weeks ago, came after several "serious defaults regarding the contractual agreements" the channel is subject to. | Hmmm. Let's take a look at the "default", shall we: |
Most notably, on November 23, the station showed a person speaking during a regular press roundup programme on Al-Manar who made comments that "were of a nature to disturb public order and to attack the fundamental principles of audiovisual law which prohibit any incitation to hatred or violence," the CSA said in a statement. | Ah...incitement to violence. |
Al-Manar was granted its licence on November 19 despite appeals by Jewish groups claiming it put out anti-Semitic content, although the CSA stressed the station would be held to the highest standards. The head of the station, Mohammed Haidar, said last week the aim of Al-Manar was to support the Palestinian cause, and it had always distinguished between Israel's policies as a state and the Jewish religion. | "But it would be much easier to distinguish between them if all the Jooos were bobbing about in the sea." |
"We are ready to respect French law and will submit to it," Mohammed Haidar told Le Figaro newspaper, adding that previous programming perpetuating false accounts about Jewish history were a "mistake". | "Rats. The cassette was marked 'The Bourne Identity'. How were we to know it was really the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'?" |
Haidar denied that Al-Manar was owned by Hezbollah but acknowledged that it defended Hezbollah's activities and views, notably with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. |