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Watchdog head pays solidarity visit to Hezbollah TV

By: Karim Tellawi

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Paris-based press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s chief arrived in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut for a solidarity visit to the television channel of Hezbollah group after it was banned from broadcasting from France.

In an interview to appear Wednesday, the watchdog's secretary general Robert Menard told Beirut daily As-Safir: “We are against the banning of any media outlet, we favor dialogue.”

“Outright closure is never the right method,” Menard said, adding that he was nonetheless opposed to anti-Semitic broadcasts like those that prompted the French ban.

France's highest administrative court last month forced Paris-based satellite carrier Eutelsat to stop carrying Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station after ruling that it had aired programming that contained unacceptable anti-Semitic views.

Al-Manar's management has been backed by the Lebanese government and local media which have retaliated against French television channels by halting their broadcasts.

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