Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Reuters NewMedia - December 11, 2004
France's broadcasting authority, the Higher Audiovisual Council (CSA), approved the al-Manar station last month despite charges it was anti-Semitic.
But less than two weeks later, the watchdog asked France's top administrative court, the Council of State, to ban al-Manar for breaking its pledge not to incite hatred among religions.
"The decision will be made on Monday, in the late afternoon," said Bruno Genevois, presiding over the Council of State's hearing on Saturday.
The CSA cited as evidence an al-Manar broadcast in November that spoke of "Zionist attempts to transmit dangerous diseases like AIDS through exports to Arab countries." The broadcast said Israel had "no scruples" about infecting Arabs and Muslims.
Al-Manar has said the French attempt to ban it from broadcasting went against the principle of freedom and that the channel had not broken a promise to report without bias.
The station is the mouthpiece of Hizbollah guerrillas who played a major role in forcing an end to Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon. The United States classes Hizbollah as a terrorist group, but France does not.
It is one of several Arabic-language satellite stations popular among France's five million Muslims, mostly of North African origin. Paris has expressed concern about growing Islamist influence among disaffected Muslim youths.
The CSA's initial approval of al-Manar sparked vivid criticism in France, especially by leaders of France's 600,000 Jews who -- like the Muslims -- make up the largest minority of its kind in Europe.
The CSA took al-Manar to court last August after its drama "The Diaspora," which depicts a Zionist plot to dominate the world, provoked uproar.
The Council of State ruled the CSA could only ban the station if it refused to apply for authorization, but al-Manar applied for and got this approval. The broadcaster comes under French jurisdiction because it uses the French-based Eutelsat.
Eutelsat said it could only unplug al-Manar by taking eight other channels off its service at the same time.
"Eutelsat is committed to respecting the law," company representative Emmanuel Piwnica told reporters after Saturday's court hearing. It would take Eutelsat between 12 and 24 hours to unplug al-Manar after a court decision to that effect, he said.
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