Hizbullah Urges Authorities to Protect Satellite TV Networks from Jamming

Hizbullah on Sunday called on Lebanese authorities to take measures to protect Lebanese satellite TV networks from jamming.

"The attack that some Lebanese satellite TV networks have been suffering is not the first of its kind, although it represents a dangerous precedent after the broadcast of NBN TV network has been totally blocked," said a statement released by Hizbullah's Media Relations Unit.

The party expressed its "strongest condemnation of this violation," stressing its "full support for the Lebanese media."

Hizbullah sees "an urgent need that the official authorities concerned perform their duties by taking measures that are apt to protect media outlets … and prevent the jamming of their transmission."

Earlier Sunday, caretaker Telecom Minister Charbel Nahhas told Hizbullah's mouthpiece Al-Manar TV that the source of jamming on Lebanese satellite TV stations on Nilesat was Libya, which is witnessing a heavy-handed crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Nahhas told Al-Risala Radio that "the telecommunications ministry has taken measures to confront piracy and the ministry's technical team has been working since a few days to stop the jamming."

NBN, the mouthpiece of AMAL Movement which accuses Libya of the 1978 kidnapping of its founder Imam Moussa Sadr, has been providing extensive coverage of the violent crackdown on protesters in Libya.