France/ The Al-Manar case

Ban of Rabidly Anti-Semitic Lebanese TV Station Shows Impact of War on Terror.Al-Manar, the Lebanese radical Muslim TV station, is now banned in France.On December 13,the Council of State, the country’s highest legal authority, determined that its programs violated French antiracist laws and regulations, and asked Eutelsat, the Parisbased satellite company in charge of Al-Manar’s broadcasting to France and Europe, to stop broadcasting the channel within 48 hours. Giulio Berretta, Eutelsat’s CEO, complied in less than 24 hours.
    Al-Manar, which means “The Lighthouse,” is close to Hezbollah, “The Party of God,” an Iranian-sponsored Shiite organization classified as a terrorist group by the American State Department. It specializes in anti-Semitic programs and statements.Some 13 months ago, in November 2003, it broadcast Al-Shatat, meaning Diaspora, a 30- episode serial reminiscent of Nazi propaganda. One episode depicts the ritual murder of a child by Jews.
    One may well imagine the effect of such fantasies, not just on Middle Eastern audiences, but on French and European Muslim audiences as well. The Muslim population of France is estimated to be between 6 million and 8 million, out of a population of 60 million.
    CRIF, the Representative Council of French Jewish Organizations, appealed to the CSA, France’s broadcasting supervisory authority, which in turn, as early as January 2004, lodged two complaints with a Paris court against Al-Manar: one for broadcasting racist programs and inciting to racial and religious hatred, and another for not having registered with the French authorities, as is required. Pierre Lellouche, a conservative member of the French National Assembly for Paris, and the driving force behind current antiracist legislation in France, dryly notes that “nothing was heard from the court ever since then.” On the other hand, a new law on broadcasting was passed on July 9, allowing CSA to refer matters directly to the Council of State, notwithstanding pending judiciary cases.
    This is what CSA did on July 12, with the support of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the conservative prime minister, who said that there was “no room on French television for anything like Al-Manar.” The Council of State’s initial reaction, on August 20,was,however,quite disappointing.All it did was request Al-Manar to register without delay and to henceforth abide by French law. No mention was made of Al-Shatat or other precedents.
    On November 19, CSA confirmed Al-Manar’s registration as a legal foreign TV station. Apparently, the CSA had to resort to an internal secret ballot (an unusual procedure) to reach a decision. The Jewish community felt betrayed, once again. Mr. Raffarin said privately he felt like he was “stabbed in the back.”Moreover,it soon transpired that Al-Manar planned to launch a program tailored to the growing French-speaking Muslim audience. It had even hired as a newscaster for that purpose, an attractive young French woman who had converted to Shiite Islam, Eline Briant. She dons the veil while on TV.
    Rumors began to spread that leniency on Al-Manar was part of a deal involving the liberation of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, two French journalists who had been abducted in Iraq last August. Eventually, Al-Manar itself provided the French with an opportunity to get rid of it. Just four days after having been made legal, on November 23, it broadcast an Arab scholar saying that “Jews were disseminating AIDS all over the world, especially through the goods they were exporting to various countries.” The CSA chairman, Dominique Baudis, immediately reported this to the Council of State. The minister of Culture and Communication, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, no less adamantly called for “the immediate banning of Al-Manar.”
    Instead of cooling down, the news director at Al-Manar, Hassan Fadlallah, resorted to further provocation: On December 11, he said that since his TV station was catering to the Muslim community in Europe, it did not have to abide by “Western values.” The Council of State had no choice but to issue a ban.
    The key point in the protracted French wavering and Al-Manar’s arrogance seems to have been business. Al-Manar was part of the Arabsat TV network, itself a sizeable customer for Eultesalt. It can be surmised that it successfully pressured Arabsat for months into pressuring Eutelsat, which, as a Paris-based company,drew much attention and sympathy from the French government. The key point in the ban, seems to be Arabsat’s willingness to cut its partnership with Al-Manar and cooperate both with Eutelsat and the French government.And why did Arabsat, (and the Arab governments that sponsor it), suddenly oblige? The reelection of President Bush, and the prospect of a continued war on terror have impressed them, apparently.
 
Special to The New York Sun
(c) Michel Gurfinkiel & The New York Sun, 2005