Companies Stop Advertising on Hezbollah’s al-Manar Television at CATM’s Request

In the last year, the Coalition Against Terrorist Media (CATM) contacted some of the world's largest corporations that were advertising on al-Manar, the Iranian-supported, Hezbollah-operated television station

In most cases, company headquarters were unaware of their ad buys on al-Manar and noted that local middlemen in Beirut had purchased the airtime. Since being notified, the majority of those companies have agreed to halt future advertising on al-Manar. These companies were grateful to have this situation brought to their attention and should be commended for making clear that they do not support al-Manar or Hezbollah's operations or goals.

Several companies even committed to establishing guidelines to prevent inadvertent ad buys on terrorist-owned television from taking place in the future. We believe that these can serve as models for other companies as well.

Over the course of the next few weeks, CATM will continue its discussions with the remaining companies still advertising on Al-Manar to obtain similar commitments. Our goal is to ensure that Al-Manar receives no advertising dollars from multinational corporations.

CATM was formed with the goal of removing al-Manar from worldwide broadcast. To date, our efforts have been instrumental in removing al-Manar from eight satellite providers. As a result, al-Manar is no longer available in North America, South America, Asia, Australia, or Southern Africa.

At CATM's urging, the U.S. State Department added al-Manar to a key terrorism list and the U.S. Senate voted in support of further sanctions. Similarly, after being alerted to al-Manar's threat by CATM, European officials agreed to work together against al-Manar and individual countries have taken action against the station.

CATM will continue to work with American, European, and Middle Eastern government officials to remove al-Manar from the two satellite companies that broadcast al-Manar's incitement to violence in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, Saudi-based ARABSAT and Egyptian-owned Nilesat.

For more information please visit www.stopterroristmedia.org.