Media companies in the Middle East say a controversial charter adopted by many countries in the region needs to be rewritten because it has become another tool of censorship by authoritarian governments.

At a conference of the Arab Broadcast Forum in Abu Dhabi, several broadcasters complained about the charter, adopted by 22 Arab League countries in February. Only Qatar and Lebanon refused to sign.

The charter was created to govern satellite television, with the most controversial clause stating that broadcasters should “not offend leaders or national and religious symbols in the Arab world.”

Ahmed Sheikh, the managing editor of Al-Jazeera, says the clause has already been used for censorship. Al-Jazeera is the region’s main English-language network.

“It’s clear it’s just to shut mouths and hides the truth,” said Sheikh.

So, for anyone who questioned the Canadian Islamic Congress’s use of Canada’s Human Rights Commission to censor anything that raises the issue of Islam taking over, now you can clearly see where it comes from. They even do it to themselves.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Freedom of Speech, Islam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.