Germany bans Hizbullah's TV station (UPDATED)

UPDATES: BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - The director of Hezbollah's satellite TV station says a German ban on the network violates international laws protecting media freedom.  Al-Manar TV Director Abdullah Kassir asserts the German government acted on a request from what he called «Zionist lobbies» in Europe in deciding to ban broadcasts of the Arabic language network.  Hezbollah has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s and is a powerful political force in Lebanon.  Germany banned Hezbollah's television station Friday on grounds that it violates the country's constitution.  The al-Manar ban prevents German satellite television companies from offering the channel.  The station says it violated no laws and vowed the ban would not stop it from doing its job.

  Germany has banned Hizbullah's television station on grounds that it violates the country's constitution, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Friday.   The US banned Al-Manar in 2004, saying it incited terrorist activity. Hizbullah is not banned in Germany but is under observation by the domestic intelligence agency, which tracks extremists.

The Al-Manar ban prevents German satellite television companies from offering the channel.

Government spokesman Markus Beyer said Al-Manar programming was forbidden on Nov. 11 under Article 9 of Germany's constitution, which says that organizations cannot operate with the purpose of violating "international understanding." Beyer was not more specific, but Al-Manar is known to be staunchly anti-Israel and frequently broadcasts footage of Hizbullah gunmen.  Al-Manar's public relations chief, Ibrahim Farhat, declined to comment, saying station management would issue a statement later.

In 2005, Al-Manar broadcast a program that portrayed Jews killing a Christian child to use its blood for matza.  When French satellite television banned the channel for airing a 29-part Ramadan special which quoted extensively from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Hizbullah spokesman Ibrahim Mousawi said the ban resulted from 'political pressure by the Jewish lobby.'   Arabic-language Al-Manar is based in Beirut and broadcasts locally and by satellite. It has no physical presence in Germany. The television station is largely funded though not operated by Iran.