Displeased With CNN, BBC Coverage, Israel Paves way to Boot CNN off Air
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Israel does not like airing its practices against the Palestinians
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, August 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli
television viewers may soon no longer have access to CNN after the
Jewish state's cable television regulator gave stations the right to
pull the U.S. network within three months because of CNN’s coverage
of the Middle East conflict.
The
cable authority announced it was making the decision officially
because of the financial situation of cable broadcasters, many
struggling under heavy debt loads, saying CNN's subscription rates are
too high, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
But
cable authority officials acknowledged to reporters that there was
"unhappiness" with the U.S. network's coverage of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israeli
pacifist group Gush Shalom denounced the decision as "censorship
aimed at hiding reality."
Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said he was "disappointed" with CNN's
coverage of the 22-month conflict during a meeting with senior network
officials at the end of June.
Communications
Minister Reuven Rivlin blasted CNN as well as the BBC for their Middle
East coverage, and said he would not oppose any move by a local
satellite television company to cut off both networks.
Rivlin
charged that CNN coverage of the conflict with the Palestinians was
fanning hatred against the Jewish state.
Israel
also took to task the BBC after it showed a program on the massacre of
Palestinian civilians in the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila
in 1982 during Israel's invasion of Lebanon.
The
documentary was highly critical of Sharon, who was Israel’s Defense
Minister at the time. An official Israeli inquiry found he had
indirect responsibility for the killings.
An
estimated 2,000 Palestinian refugees were brutally murdered in the
massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps led by Maronite
Christian militiamen during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
Sharon, then Israel’s defense minister, was the architect of the
military campaign.
Sharon
was found indirectly responsible for the massacres by an Israeli
commission of inquiry and was forced to resign.
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