The CRIF in action
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Published on 5 January 2005

AL-MANAR JUST A BEGINNING, SAYS LEBANESE MINISTER

The main radical Islamic group in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, blamed the "Zionist lobbies" in France and in the United States for the outlawing of the TV channel Al-Manar (see our previous editions). The group called on the Hezbollah to "pursue its mission in defense of the just causes and of the noble human values" and called on the French government "to review its decision and not get carried away by the unjust policy of the United States."



The French broadcasting authority, CSA, said it wished the implementation of a European regulation on the issue of non-European channels. CSA's Chairman Dominique Baudis said, "I suggest periodic meetings with representatives of the broadcasting authorities of the various European countries so that we would be able to handle the issue of TV channels from outside Europe." Speaking of Al-Manar, Baudis said the channel was "racist, anti-Semitic and inciting to hatred."

Since the French CSA decided to silence in France the channel of the Lebanese Hezbollah, several cable operators in Lebanon decided to retaliate by pulling the plug on the French speaking channel TV5 "in solidarity with Al-Manar". The Lebanese Cabinet Minister of Information wrote, "according to information from Europe and the United States, the campaign targeting Al-Manar is just the beginning of a global action against Arab channels aiming at imposing on the region's media criteria that will prevent them from exposing the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli occupier as well as preventing them from informing about the resistance and its political opinions."

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