09/01/2010 Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has urged the United States to reverse a decision to ban the "Anti-American" Media, including Al-Manar TV Channel, during talks with US Senator John MCain.
 
McCain and his accompanying congressional delegation held talks with top Lebanese officials, including Sleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Saad Hariri and PSP leader Walid Jumblatt, during a two-day visit to Beirut.
 
"President Sleiman asked that Washington backtrack on its decision to ban certain television channels, including Al-Manar," a statement from his office said after the Friday meeting.
 
Sleiman's concerns come after the US House of Representatives passed a bill in December calling for punitive measures against Middle East television networks seen as fueling anti-American hatred.
  
Arab information ministers are due to meet on January 24 at the Cairo headquarters of the 22-member Arab League to discuss the US bill.
 
The bill, adopted in a decisive 395-3 vote, asks President Barack Obama to report, six months after the text has passed, "on anti-American incitement to violence in the Middle East, and for other purposes." "For years, media outlets in the Middle East have repeatedly published or broadcast incitements to violence against the United States and Americans," the bill read.
 
The networks listed include Al-Aqsa, Hamas' television station, which broadcasts from Gaza, and Hezbollah's Al-Manar. Al-Manar is on a so-called “list of terrorist organizations” announced in December 2004 by the United States, where the television has lost its feed and is banned from broadcasting.
 
Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and its key Middle East ally Israel, although the resistance movement is a major political party in Lebanon.
 
Lebanon, one country that actually adopted "democracy" in its true meaning, seemed to be "united" over the issue and thus, raised the voice at all levels, from the presidencies to the Parliament passing by the media representatives.
 
On Friday, Speaker Berri sent a letter to US Speaker Nancy Pelosi describing as "derogative" to Lebanon's and other Arab countries' sovereignty the bill adopted by the US congress on sanctioning Arab satellite channels that are deemed as "inciting hatred" against the United States. Berri added that the bill "harms the principles of freedom of expression and civil rights, and leads to further complication in relations."
 
"This bill represents bypassing to the sovereign national laws of the targeted countries, among them Lebanon which is a free 'Hyde Park' for the Lebanese and Arab satellite 'public opinion' media channels," Berri's letter added. "All of the (foreign) media channels broadcasting from Lebanon know and appreciate Lebanon's keenness on building the best relations with the United States which hosts a major Lebanese community."
 
Berri added that the US laws as well as Lebanese laws stress upon respect for freedom of expression which represents "the first sacred right" of any human. "Therefore, the bill issued by your Congress undermines our sovereignty as well as the sovereignty of many countries and damages the principles of freedom and civilian rights and therefore further complicates the relations," Berri's letter concluded.
 
Earlier, the Information and Telecommunication parliamentary committee discussed the ways to safeguard the Lebanese media channels against the US bill. In a meeting it held under MP Hasan Fadlallah and in the presence of Minister Mitri as well as representatives from different TVs, the committee rejected the US bill and confirmed the Lebanese "unified" stance over the issue. Fadlallah called for a series of ministerial moves at the top of which is to summon the US ambassador to clarify the whole issue.