“Nilesat Al-Manar Decision Tantamount to Tampering with Lebanon Dignity”

Head of the Information and Communication Parliamentary Committee, MP Hassan Fadlallah, denounced Nilesat decision to block the broadcast of Al-Manar TV channel, stressing that such move “is tantamount to tampering with Lebanon’s dignity.”

In a press conference following the Communication Committee meeting in the Lebanese Parliament on Monday, Fadlallah said that today’s meeting touched on halting transmission from Jourit Al-Ballout, as well as halting the transmission of Al-Manar TV via the said transmitter station.Lebanese MP Hasan Fadlallah

“We will not give up a single letter from the word freedom”, the Lebanese lawmaker said, calling on Egypt to reconsider its decision to halt Al-Manar broadcast.

In this context, Fadlallah stressed that Al-Manar “has not committed any sort of legal infraction.”

“There’s a unanimous agreement among committee members concerning the need to stand in solidarity over this matter,” Fadlallah said, according to National New Agency.

He urged the cabinet to reactivate Jourit Al-Ballout station and to consider any incident similar to Al-Manar’s as a flagrant attack against Lebanon’s sovereignty.

For his part, Information Minister Razmi Jreij said he “shall seek renewing the Nilesat license during upcoming Cabinet session.”

He told the conference that Lebanon will not give up the one thing that distinguished it from other neighboring countries: the freedom of press.

Earlier last week, Nilesat Managing Board informed the Lebanese Ministry of Communications that it will block the broadcast of Al-Manar TV channel across the Nilesat signals starting from Wednesday.

The Egyptian Satellite Company justified the decision by claiming that the Al-Manar TV violated the agreement signed between both parties and broadcast programs which provoke sectarian strife and sedition.