Al-Manar
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Al-Manar (Arabic: المنار; The Beacon) is the satellite television station of Hezbollah, broadcasting from Beirut, Lebanon and offering a "rich menu" of high production news, commentary, and entertainment in the service of what Hezbollah believes is Islamic unity and resistance movement. The self-proclaimed "Station of the Resistance" (qanat al-muqawama), is a key player in what Hezbollah calls its "psychological warfare against the Zionist enemy," i.e. the state of Israel, and an integral part of Hezbollah's plan to spread its message to the Arab world. Palestinian cause, and the US coalition's occupation of Iraq, encouraging armed resistance against the US and elimination of "the Zionist entity" (i.e. Israel). Currently, programming is geared towards coverage of the
The station was launched by Hezbollah in 1991 with the help of Iranian funds, by 2004, Al Manar was estimated to hold 10-15 million viewers daily worldwide. argue al-Manar's agenda is strongly influenced by Iran by virtue of the "significant portion" of Hizbollah's budget shortfall that is covered by Iran, via some of the "$100 and $200 million a year" Iran provides to Hezbollah itself. Al-Manar officials strongly deny this, saying they are subsidized by the Hezbollah party and donations from other Muslims, not by Iran. Critics
Al-Manar was designated as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity", and banned by the United States in December 2004. It has also been banned by France, Spain and Germany, and has run into some service and license problems abroad, making it unavailable in the Netherlands, South America, Canada and Australia while it has not officially been banned in any of these regions.
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Al-Manar is a Lebanese-based TV station, which first began terrestrial broadcasting from Beirut, Lebanon on June 3, 1991. By 2000, the station began broadcasting via satellite at a cost was a couple of million dollars. The station was located in the Shi'a-controlled neighborhood Harat Hurayk in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the Hezbollah is also headquartered. Originally, the station employed only a few men that had studied media in London during the mid-1980s. But almost a year later, Al-Manar was employing over 150 people.
Initially, al-Manar would broadcast only five hours per day. Shortly before the 1992 election, it began broadcasting regular news bulletins in order to help Hezbollah attain more votes and spread its message to more people. In 1993, the station expanded its broadcasting to seven hours a day and extended its signal to the southern part of the Bekaa Valley. Ahead of the 1996 Lebanese parliamentary elections, additional antennas were erected in northern Lebanon and throughout the Mount Lebanon range, so that the station could be viewed not only in Lebanon, but also in western Syria and northern Israel. Broadcasting was extended to 20 hours in 1998 and to 18 hours in 2000.
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