BEIRUT, 4 December 2004 — Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television said yesterday a French call to ban the station from broadcasting in Europe went against the principle of freedom and that the channel had not broken a promise to report without bias.
France’s CSA broadcasting authority has called for a ban on Al-Manar broadcasts to Europe, saying the channel, accused by critics of being anti-Semitic, breached an earlier agreement not to show programs that could incite hatred among religions.
French Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin said on Thursday that Al-Manar’s programs 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.
“We were astonished to hear the French prime minister saying that Al-Manar’s programs do not fit with French values, which we reject,” the channel’s Head of News Hassan Fadlallah said in his Beirut office.
“Our programs 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.
Al-Manar is the mouthpiece of Hezbollah fighters who played a major role in forcing an end to Israel’s 22-year occupation of south Lebanon. The United States classes Hezbollah as a terrorist group, but France does not.
Al-Manar is one of several Arabic language satellite channels popular among France’s five million Muslims, mostly of north African origin. Paris has expressed concern about growing influence of militants among disaffected Muslim youths.
