In France, the French Broadcasting Authority banned Al-Manar, Hezbollah’s TV station. The move was sparked by Al-Manar airing al-Shatat, a mini-series about a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world (one episode depicted a graphic blood libel).
Meanwhile, in Canada, when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission recently allowed Al-Jazeera to broadcast, the permission came with certain conditions. Would-be distributors and Canadian Arabs are claiming the conditions make it impossible for anyone to broadcast Al-Jazeera in Canada.
Among the conditions — the network’s distributors “record Al Jazeera programming and keep the recordings for a specific length of time,” distributors “not distribute abusive content,” and distributors are allowed “to alter or delete the programming of Al Jazeera solely for the purpose of ensuring that no abusive comment is distributed.”
Elie Kawkabani, president of Reach Media, a Los Angeles-based media marketing and distribution company, which holds the rights to distribute al-Jazeera, told the Washington Post, “They’ve given us approval but made it difficult for cable companies and satellite companies to carry it. They are not set up to monitor and decide what is appropriate or not appropriate.”
But the Canadian Jewish Congress said the conditions make it possible to strike a balance between Al-Jazeera’s friends and foes:
In assessing a foreign station’s application, the CRTC must respect cultural and political diversity. But it must also keep in mind that one group’s vilification of another merits no respect whatsoever. By imposing stringent conditions on al-Jazeera’s broadcast licence, the CRTC has increased the chances that Canadians will hear “the opinion — and the other opinion” about Middle East politics, while minimizing the chances that we’ll hear the vitriolic opinions that no one should have to bear.
