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July 30, 2004/Av 5 5764, Vol. 56, No. 45
Canadian Jews at odds over Al-Jazeera
BILL GLADSTONE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
TORONTO - Canadian Jewish officials have mixed feelings about a precedent-setting ruling by Canada's telecommunications regulator that would allow cable distributors to import Al-Jazeera - provided they expunge any objectionable content.
According to Frank Dimant, executive vice president of B'nai Brith Canada, allowing the Arabic-language news station into Canada in any form would open a "Pandora's box of anti-Israeli and anti-American propaganda in Canadian living rooms."
Other Jewish officials, though, applauded the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission for its decision, which also requires cable distributors to videotape all Al-Jazeera broadcasts for review in case of later complaints.
Cable industry represen-tatives characterized the commission's conditions as prohibitive, saying no cable company would willingly take on the responsibilities and costs associated with monitoring and censoring Al-Jazeera.
Commission spokesman Philippe Tousignant said the national regulator was attempting to balance the right of Canadians to access the channel - for which there clearly is a market - with their right to freedom from hate speech.
It's the first time the commission has imposed such conditions, Tousignant said, adding that the burden placed on dis-tributors "would not be excessive."
Commission chairman Charles Dalfen told media that cable companies would not necessarily have to censor objectionable ma-terial in advance, but would have to respond to any well-founded complaints about objectionable content or risk losing their license to carry the network.
Ed Morgan, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said the ruling sensitively reflected the recommendations the Jewish group made to the commission last year.
"We said, first of all, you should not license them, but if you do, you should license them with a strict regime of monitoring and you should put the onus not only on Al-Jazeera itself but on the carrier," Morgan said.
"In addition, we also recommended that video-tapes be kept of everything, so if there's a complaint we can review a show after the fact."
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