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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 2, January 02-January 15, 2009

Hamas TV Shut Down

Hamas-backed Al-Aqsa TV has been "banned" by French broadcasting authorities just hours after transmissions started from Eutelsat-associated operator Noorsat, reports Rapid TV News. Hamas's television channel was taken off the air in Europe less than 24 hours after it was added to the satellite network, industry officials declared.

The decision to ban the channel was praised by the American Jewish Committee. "The action will sharply limit the reach into Europe of the terrorist organization's broadcasts," said the organization.

According to BBC Monitoring, the French broadcasting authority CSA said it had sent a warning to Eutelsat in December in the belief that some Al-Aqsa TV programs were likely to breach Article 5 of the law prohibiting incitement to hatred or violence on the grounds of race, religion or nationality.

Eutelsat stressed to AFP that there was no contract between Eutelsat and Al-Aqsa TV. "We have a contract with a distributing firm called Noorsat based in Bahrain. We learned that Al-Aqsa TV was being carried on one of our satellites broadcasting to Europe on capacity that had been temporarily allocated to Noorsat for technical documentation at the start of the week," Eutelsat explained.

Meanwhile critics countered that Israeli TV frequently carries anti-Islamic comments of an extreme nature. One report on Middle East Online said pro-Israel groups often exaggerate or even outright lie about the nature of Hamas discourse.

Investigations showed that Al-Aqsa TV added two frequenciesby using the European satellite Eurobird in order to overcome disruptions to its broadcasts during Operation Cast Lead, according to Terrorism Info. Terrorism Info notes that the head offices of Eutelsat's broadcasts reach central and western Europe, where there are large Arab communities, exposing them to Hamas's vicious anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic and anti-Western propaganda.

In April 2008 Al-Aqsa TV's CEO, Fathi Hamad, said that he intended to increase the range of Al-Aqsa TV's broadcasts by using the European communications satellite Hotbird (operated by the same European corporation as Eurobird).