Egypt HRG slams French ban on al-Aqsa TV

A human rights group in Egypt has denounced the decision by France’s broadcasting watchdog to take Palestinian channel al-Aqsa TV off the air.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information strongly condemned the move in a statement, charging that it came “without sufficient clarification,” AFP reported on Wednesday.

The condemnation came after French satellite company Eutelsat said on Tuesday that it would cease the channel within two days.

“We were told that the reason behind the decision to stop broadcasting al-Aqsa was ‘incitement to hatred,’ without any explanation,” said deputy head of the channel Mohammed Thuraya.

The Egyptian human rights group further added that this was “in violation of legal rules that require mentioning the reasons for that action in a clear manner.”

The Gaza-based channel, which was launched in 2006, has offices in Gaza, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, and has around 400 employees.

The channel gives a behind-the-scene look at the hardship suffered by the impoverished people of Gaza under the crippling Israeli blockade of the coastal strip.

It also provided a non-stop coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza in December 2008, which destroyed all the channel’s studios but failed to take it off the air.