France's airwaves have become the latest battleground in the Arab-Israeli dispute. At the center of a brouhaha that attracted the attention of France's Jewish lobby and garnered the interest of the prime minister is Al Manar, a Lebanese satellite TV station operated by Lebanon's Hizbullah party.
The dispute began when the CRIF, an influential Jewish lobby in France, filed a complaint with the Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), France's broadcasting regulatory body.
The CRIF was angered by Al Manar's programming, much of which contained harsh anti-Semitic programs, including documentaries with gross historical inaccuracies in which, for example, Jews were depicted killing Jews who converted to Christianity and in which Jews drank the blood of Christian children.
Additionally, Al Manar aired continuous footage glorifying jihad and "martyrdom" operations against Jews. The CRIF wanted the offensive satellite feed stopped - as did the French government. However, the problem with modern technology is that at times it seems to have a life of its own, as the French government and the CSA found out.
The job of the audiovisual regulatory body is to ensure that anyone broadcasting in France adheres to France's broadcasting laws but the body has no real policing capabilities.
"What do you do when the images fall out of the sky, transmitted directly from a satellite to a satellite dish?" asked CSA president Dominique Baudis in a Le Monde editorial.
Many would like to see Al Manar, which also broadcasts news bulletins in French, prevented from airing programs in France, but, technically, it is all but impossible to prevent Al Manar's satellite feed, part of a multitude of other similar feeds, from going out over the airwaves.
"The CSA does not have an elevator and magic scissors allowing it to rise up to the satellite and sever the feed," said Baudis.
Indeed, all the French broadcasting authority can do is bar Al Manar, legally, from airing their programs. Such a ban would be entirely symbolic and it would not prevent the station from continuing to broadcast.
"It is not as simple as pulling a plug. The route through which Al Manar arrives in France is complicated," explained a high-ranking French official familiar with the issue.
The programming from the network's studios in Beirut is transmitted to a technical center in Tunis. There the signal from Beirut is mixed with a series of other feeds -- hundreds of TV programs from the multitude of signals now available via satellite.
From Tunis the signal is transmitted up to a satellite from where a downlink feed can be received by any satellite dish equipped with the corresponding codes that allow the images to be viewed. Making the matter somewhat more complicated is the fact that Al Manar is transmitted over several satellites, including Etesalat, Nilesate and maybe others, too. Blocking transmission from one feed will not stop it altogether. This is the magic of television.
When the CSA first started monitoring Al Manar's transmissions, the official said they noticed that the programs were filled with anti-Semitic messages and programs depicting Jews in negative light, including messages blaming Jews for spreading AIDS. Al Manar was packed with "fillers" - short video clips sandwiched between programs - calling for "martyrdom", glorifying suicide attacks and inciting hate.
Rather than seeking to prevent Al Manar from airing their programs, something that the CSA would have a hard time implementing, technically at least, they entered into negotiations with Al Manar.
The French audiovisual authority and Al Manar agreed that the Lebanese Hizbullah network would abide by France's demands to cease airing messages of hate and abide by French law. In return, the French would not try to get Al Manar off the air.
The good news, said the French official, is that following the agreement, Al Manar had considerably toned down its offensive programming.
When French authorities first started looking into Al Manar's programs, they documented offensive "incidents" on a daily basis, but after the agreement the CSA registered "only" two infractions over 15 days.
The French say even that is not acceptable and officials will not tolerate any infractions of French law; Al Manar must abide by the same rules that apply to other broadcasters in France.
Every time Al Manar diverges from these norms, the CSA is quick to point it out and threaten sanctions. Nevertheless, the French feel they have come a long way in getting Al Manar to mend its ways.
Claude Salhani is international editor at United Press International
Arabs and Jews battle it out over the airwaves
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