EU censors Arab ‘hate’ broadcasts

Europe’s broadcasting regulators are to launch an EU crackdown on “hate” transmissions following rows over Arab satellite stations transmitting from France.

The European Commission has moved to bring together national watchdogs in a bid to “prohibit broadcasts which contain an incitement to hatred… swiftly, effectively and consistently”.

A Thursday Brussels meeting saw regulators agree a raft of measures to ensure EU rules outlawing “incitement to hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion or nationality”.

The new move indicates a policy shift towards content regulation in EU audiovisual policy as the commission reviews the ‘Television without Frontiers’ Directive.

EU media chief Viviane Reding is to present new proposals by the end of 2005, and revised legisaltion is also set to be extended to the internet.

Reding denied that the new initiatives amounted to censorship or restrictions on free speech

“The right to freedom of speech and freedom to information… is a cornerstone of a democratic and pluralist society, especially in the audiovisual field,” she said.

“However, the respect of human dignity is a European value of equal importance. We therefore cannot tolerate racist audiovisual content in Europe.”

EU regulators are to step up the exchange of information “via national contact points on which channels are authorised in their respective jurisdictions”.

“They could interconnect their channel authorisation databases, or even establish a central database, and set up a restricted internet forum in which to discuss problematic cases,” said a commission statement.

Enforcement of the EU rules exists at the national level including regulation of TV channels beamed in from outside Europe.

“The commission has always attached great importance to the work of national broadcasting authorities and I am sure that we can find effective ways of further deepening our cooperation,” said Reding.

The new “hate” speech crackdown follows a row over the Al Manar TV station – owned by radical Arab group Hezbollah.

One of the satellite providers which transmitted Al Manar was the French satellite Hot Bird 4, owned by the Eutelsat Satellite organisation.

The station “has several times been accused of broadcasting programming that preaches hatred and violence” and last year the US put Al Manar on a terror list.

On December 13 2004 the French authorities ordered  Eutelsat to shut down Al Manar broadcasts “following accusations that its programmes were anti-Semitic and could incite hatred”.

“During this French procedure the European Commission worked very closely together with the French authorities and supported the strict and effective application of European law,” said a commission statement.

Following the March 17 meeting Dutch broadcast watchdogs are to shut down Al Manar transmissions from the Netherlands.

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