French TV to be taken off airwaves in Beirut

About 50 private cable television operators in the Lebanese capital Beirut have stopped carrying the French channel TV5,  in a show of solidarity with al-Manar, the Hezbollah-linked TV channel - recently banned by France and the US government. Ihab Samir, co-owner of Lebenon's LTV, said the broadcasters took the decision "to halt TV5 in Beirut as a first step, as we are making contacts with other companies in other Lebanese regions." The French-based company Eutelsat dropped al-Manar from its broadcasts last week after a Paris high court ruled its programming was anti-Semitic. On Friday, French satellite carrier GlobeCast stoped broadcasting  al-Manar to the US after the State department announced it had added the channel to its list of terrorist organizations.