French satellite platform interrupts broadcast of Iranian TV channel

On Thursday, the European satellite TV provider Eutelsat, based and regulated in France, stopped broadcasting the Iranian TV channel Sahar 1, following a request from the French audiovisual regulator CSA. According to the CSA, the channel carried numerous anti-Semitic programs and content that incites racial hatred. A complaint by Eutelsat against the CSA's request was rejected on 4 March by the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest adminstrative court. The decision had already sparked outrage in Iran. A member of parliament in Tehran said that French reporters ought to be expelled from Iran as a response to the ban. It is the second such decision by French authorities within three months. In December, the Hezbollah-supported Lebanese channel Al-Manar was removed from Eutelsat's platform on the same grounds.