Posted on 04/18/2005 5:46:59 PM PDT by bamaborn
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran suspended the nationwide operations of Arab TV broadcaster Al-Jazeera on April 18, accusing it of inflaming violent protests by the Arab minority in its southwest, state-run TV reported.
Al-Jazeera, which is popular among Iran's Arab-speaking minority, is believed to have been the first news outlet to broadcast news of the unrest in Khuzistan province along the border with Iraq. Several people were reported to have been killed. The station's commentators discussed the clashes on talk shows as well.
Tehran ordered the station to cease operations until the network explained the motives behind its coverage.
"If it is proved that Al-Jazeera committed a crime, it will be prosecuted," an official at Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, Mohammad Hossein Khoshvaght, told state-run TV.
Jihad Ballout, an Al-Jazeera spokesman in Doha, Qatar, said he had heard media reports of the ban, but the station had not yet received official notification.
Al-Jazeera has occasionally run into problems with authorities in Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Iraq. The United States frequently has criticized the station for its coverage of the war in Iraq.
Unlike state-run media, the station often airs views of local opposition figures and their criticisms of their countries' rulers.
Arabs make up just 3 percent of Iran's population. Persians account for 51 percent of its 69 million people.
They had booths at the RNC and DNC conventions last year..
What is missing from this is Al-Jeezra was banned, only to be replaced by MTV2.
The mullahs need their Anti-American news from a "reliable" source.
Pity they were not cooked and eaten. That would have learned them!
Al Jazeera can't seem to get the interviews with the "superstar" anti-Americans (Kerry, Pelosi, Kennedy, Biden) like ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and PMSNBC can.
Yes, the most Anti-USA of all ... CBS
Quiet True...won't be long till Iran doesn't even have to "caption" CBS's nightly news broadcaste. For, we will all be able to listen to it, as we watch (know thy enemy, remember), in the original Arabic (Persian).
Al-Jazeera=sh*t if have no freedom countries .
"Jihad Ballout, an Al-Jazeera spokesman in Doha"
...was told, along with all his al Jazeerah colleagues, to leave Iran, and not to let the Doha hit them on the *** on the way out.
[I'd say 'rimshot', but somehow it seems distasteful]
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