The United States Congress recently announced a decision to ban Al-Manar, the Hezbollah-run television channel, following a bill that was passed last December by the House of Representatives, reports Agence France Presse. Lebanese President Michel Sleiman urged the US to reverse the decision during recent talks with Senator John McCain (R-Arizona).

The bill, adopted in a decisive 395-3 vote at the House of Representatives, calls for punitive measures against owners of communications satellites and TV networks seen as spreading "anti-American incitement to violence in the Middle East."

Arab information ministers are due to meet on January 24 at the Cairo headquarters of the 22-member Arab League to discuss the US bill, according to AFP. In the text accompanying the bill, references are made to Hezbollah's Al-Manar satellite station Hamas' Al-Aqsa, as well as Al-Zawraa and Al-Rafidain, two stations that broadcast in Iraq.

Hezbollah is on a list of terrorist organizations that the United States released in December 2004, and its channel Al-Manar has been banned from broadcasting. However, Hezbollah is also a major political party in Leanon and musters great public support in the country.

"President Sleiman asked that Washington to backtrack on its decision to ban certain television channels, including Al-Manar," read a statement from his office, published after the meeting.

The Lebanese president also voiced concern about a US decision to tighten security measures for airline passengers traveling from Lebanon and 13 other countries, remarks Elias Sakr at The Daily Star. "Lebanon is enjoying an atmosphere of calm and stability and all procedures taken at the airport are excellent and proved their effectiveness," Sleiman declared.

Sakr reports that McCain said his country had the right to halt the broadcast of foreign stations voicing enmity to the US.

McCain remarked, "I believe some of the stations we prevented were stirring feeling of enmity to America and we have the right to stop them. However, we have to consider the issue further to avoid taking similar decisions regarding stations which did not voice hostility against us."

In a letter to House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri criticized Congress for passing a bill that is perceived in the Middle East and elsewhere as infringing upon "the sovereignty of the states broadcasting the penalized satellite content - including Lebanon - and complicates US-Lebanese relations."

Indeed, many across the region consider that the loose terms employed in the text subject channels and broadcast stations to very arbitrary judgment. Berri added, "This bill represents bypassing to the sovereign national laws of the targeted countries, among them Lebanon which is a free 'Hyde Park' for the Lebanese and Arab satellite 'public opinion' media channels."

Reporters Without Borders urged US authorities to "take care not to lump the fight against unproven anti-Semitism with the fight against terrorism," according to Counter Punch.

"Putting this TV station in the same category as terrorist groups worries us and does not strike us as the best solution," the organization continues.

Counter Punch adds that the NGO warned, "We fear that this measure could be just the first of many others, and that all news media that have been accused of helping terrorist organizations in their coverage could end up on this list, in which case there will definitely be abuses."

The UAE daily Al-Khaleej also criticized the bill to ban Arab satellite channels on the grounds that they disseminate a hostile and terrorist ideology, according to The National. By undertaking this step, the news site remarks that Congress betrays slogans that proclaim its interest to protect freedom, including freedom of expression, and "demonstrate the extent of Israeli dominion in top decision-making circles in the US."

The National argues that Arabs should therefore intensify their efforts to counter such moves and put this point high on the agenda of the next meeting of information ministers.

In related news, another channel from Egypt, Al-Faraeen (The Pharaohs), whose broadcast is considered anti-Semitic and anti-American, recently announced collaboration with a German state-run channel, reports the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The Egyptian television channel Al-Faraeen is broadcast by the Atlantic Bird 4A satellite, owned by the France-based Eutelsat Company.

The channel focuses on broad issues with an emphasis on Egyptian national identity. Al-Faraeen has a somewhat secular slant, with a blatant anti-American approach, according to MEMRI. Tawfiq Okasha, the owner of the channel, declared on the channel that the US civilization is "the second in history to be founded on blood."

In another show, he allegedly called the US "Mama America," in reference to a well-known anti-American Egyptian theatrical show, and attacked the bill adopted by the US House of Representatives. Okasha says that while the US talks about freedom of speech, "It attempts to restrict TV channels airing views that contradict its own views."

Okasha concluded that the bill would lead to journalists being sent to Guantanamo, or to the establishment of a new prison for them.