Australia seeks block on Hezbollah TV from Indonesia

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia is seeking to block a radical anti-Israel satellite TV channel linked to the militant Hezbollah group and broadcast from neighbouring Indonesia, the government's broadcast watchdog said on Thursday.

The al-Manar channel, owned by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, is popular with Arabic speakers in Australia, broadcasting programmes including "The Spider's House", a talk show targeted at uncovering weaknesses in "The Zionist Entity", or Israel.

"The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has strong concerns about the broadcast in Australia of programmes that contain terrorist-related content," ACMA spokesman Donald Robertson told Reuters.

Al-Manar, or "The Beacon", was banned in the United States in 2004. It describes itself as the "Station of the Resistance" against Israel and U.S. foreign policy, with around 15 million viewers around the world.

Launched in 1991 with backing from Iran, the station has just resumed broadcasting into Asia and the Pacific using the Indosat telecommunications service partly owned by the Indonesian government.

Other controversial programmes carried by the channel include "My Blood and the Rifle", which lionises Hezbollah fighters and encourages viewers to join the anti-Israel resistance.

A spokeswoman for Indosat, Adita Irawati, said on Thursday: "Basically this is a purely business deal.

"We treat them like any other broadcasters who request to use Indosat's transponder. There's no special issue here. Our review shows that they (al-Manar) are meeting the criteria as our customers so it's a pure business deal."