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Satellite operator Thaicom has terminated broadcasts by a Lebanese television channel, al-Manar TV, after learning it was backed by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. Shin Satellite, which owns Thaicom, pulled the plug on al-Manar TV on Monday.
The satellite had been broadcasting test transmissions for the station.
The abrupt cancellation followed a report by the Israel-based Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) a few weeks ago that a Thai communications satellite, Thaicom, was transmitting al-Manar, to a vast audience.
Thaicom broadcasts to most countries in Asia as well as to Australia, Africa and central Europe.
US counter-terrorism specialist Andrew Cochran said ITIC reported that al-Manar raised funds for Hezbollah through advertisements broadcast on the network and an accompanying website that requested donations for the terrorist organisation.
Al-Manar has also provided support to Palestinian terrorist organisations, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. It was known to have transferred tens of thousands of dollars for a PIJ-controlled charity, he said.
Mr Cochrane advised the US State Department to apply pressure for the termination of the broadcasts as a matter of priority.
A Shin Satellite executive, who asked not to be named, said al-Manar had leased a C-band VDO channel on Thaicom 5 just over a month ago.
Shin Satellite caters for more than 200 channels. Monitoring of the channels focused on the quality of the image and sound. It did not focus on content, apart from possible pornographic images, because staff could not understand most of the languages, he said.
''But after we learned of the problem, we removed the channel from our satellite broadcast at once,'' he said.
The contract with al-Manar stipulated that if the Thai government considered that any programme being transmitted was not appropriate, Shin Satellite had the right to terminate the contract or to remove the programme.
He said the company could not know exactly who was leasing channel space on the satellite or what kind of programming they intended to provide, because the clients never revealed all their intentions.
The company had no access to a blacklist and had not been informed where to go to confirm a blacklisting, he said.
Other countries, including the US, long ago took action to impede al-Manar's broadcasts.
According to the ITIC report, AsiaSat stopped broadcasting al-Manar in 2005, and the Spanish government ordered the banning of Hezbollah TV broadcasts to Latin America via Hispasat.
In late 2006, two men were charged in the US with conspiring to support terrorists by enabling customers to obtain satellite broadcasts of al-Manar.
ITIC quoted a website as reporting that ''company sources'' claimed Thaicom considered al-Manar programming to be news and entertainment.
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Satellite operator Thaicom has terminated broadcasts by a Lebanese television channel, al-Manar TV, after learning it was backed by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. Shin Satellite, which owns Thaicom, pulled the plug on al-Manar TV on Monday.
The satellite had been broadcasting test transmissions for the station.
The abrupt cancellation followed a report by the Israel-based Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) a few weeks ago that a Thai communications satellite, Thaicom, was transmitting al-Manar, to a vast audience.
Thaicom broadcasts to most countries in Asia as well as to Australia, Africa and central Europe.
US counter-terrorism specialist Andrew Cochran said ITIC reported that al-Manar raised funds for Hezbollah through advertisements broadcast on the network and an accompanying website that requested donations for the terrorist organisation.
Al-Manar has also provided support to Palestinian terrorist organisations, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. It was known to have transferred tens of thousands of dollars for a PIJ-controlled charity, he said.
Mr Cochrane advised the US State Department to apply pressure for the termination of the broadcasts as a matter of priority.
A Shin Satellite executive, who asked not to be named, said al-Manar had leased a C-band VDO channel on Thaicom 5 just over a month ago.
Shin Satellite caters for more than 200 channels. Monitoring of the channels focused on the quality of the image and sound. It did not focus on content, apart from possible pornographic images, because staff could not understand most of the languages, he said.
''But after we learned of the problem, we removed the channel from our satellite broadcast at once,'' he said.
The contract with al-Manar stipulated that if the Thai government considered that any programme being transmitted was not appropriate, Shin Satellite had the right to terminate the contract or to remove the programme.
He said the company could not know exactly who was leasing channel space on the satellite or what kind of programming they intended to provide, because the clients never revealed all their intentions.
The company had no access to a blacklist and had not been informed where to go to confirm a blacklisting, he said.
Other countries, including the US, long ago took action to impede al-Manar's broadcasts.
According to the ITIC report, AsiaSat stopped broadcasting al-Manar in 2005, and the Spanish government ordered the banning of Hezbollah TV broadcasts to Latin America via Hispasat.
In late 2006, two men were charged in the US with conspiring to support terrorists by enabling customers to obtain satellite broadcasts of al-Manar.
ITIC quoted a website as reporting that ''company sources'' claimed Thaicom considered al-Manar programming to be news and entertainment.
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