Ibrahim Farhad is in a strange predicament. He can happily talk about the television station he works for — al-Manar, Hezbollah’s privately owned mouthpiece. The problem is, he can’t say where it is.
”Honestly, I have no idea where we broadcast from,” says the black-clad public relations manager with a smile. ”And even if I did, I couldn’t tell you.”
Infused with the same secrecy and iron discipline as Hezbollah itself, al-Manar — ”the beacon” in Arabic — has gone underground, perhaps literally.
Israel blitzed the station’s Beirut headquarters in the opening days of the recent conflict, levelling it to rubble. But within minutes the station transferred to a new location from where it resumed broadcasting its mix of news, prayers and propaganda.
The location remains a closely guarded secret, second only to the whereabouts of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. A popular rumour has the station ensconced inside a fortified bunker, which would help explain how it survived the war.
Despite seven Israeli strikes against its facilities over 34 days, the channel claims it went off air for just two minutes. ”We are very proud of that. Our station was a prime target, but they couldn’t shut us down,” said Farhad.
Israel is not the only country trying. The US government has designated the station a ”global terrorist entity”, and late last month federal agents arrested a New York satellite television distributor who offered it to his customers. France, Spain and The Netherlands have also imposed bans.
But the censors have failed to halt its galloping ratings in the Middle East. At the height of fighting in late July, al-Manar was the 10th most-watched satellite station in the Arab world, according to a poll by the Ipsos-Stat agency — up from 83rd in the previous survey period.
”They were well prepared for war. Whether you like them or not, you have to admit they are serious,” said Joseph Samaha, editor of the Arab language newspaper al-Akhbar.
The station was a key element of Hezbollah’s armoury. As Israel showered southern villages with leaflets warning residents to flee or be killed, al-Manar journalists offered frontline reports about Hezbollah successes and rocket strikes into northern Israel.
The station is also a critical element in the rise of Nasrallah. The bearded cleric’s telegenic manner — calm, poised and flashing the occasional smile — has undoubtedly helped build his stature as one of the most popular figures in the Arab and Muslim worlds.
During the heaviest fighting, Nasrallah went on air to soothe supporters. Within hours of the August 14 ceasefire, he declared a ”strategic, historic victory” and announced a multimillion-dollar aid package for 15 000 families who lost their homes.
Critics counter that the station, which began broadcasting in 1990, is a sinister front for terrorism. The Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a conservative Washington think tank, says its programmes incite suicide bombers and have claimed that Jews kill Christian children and use their blood to make unleavened bread for the Passover holiday.
A French court shut down broadcasts in 2004 on the basis that its programmes were anti-Semitic. Two years earlier a news executive, Hassan Fadlallah, told the New Yorker: ”We’re not looking to interview [Israeli prime minister] Sharon. We want to get close to him in order to kill him.”
These days, though, the station is projecting a softer image. Although it still features patriotic songs exalting the ”Islamic resistance” [a synonym for Hezbollah] and condemning the ”Great Satan” (the US), most airtime is filled with political debates and reports about reconstruction efforts.
Farhad, the PR manager, said Israel is trying to demonise the station in the West for its staunch pro-Palestinian stance. ”We have no programmes about suicide bombs. We simply reflect the reality of what Israelis do to the Palestinians. For this they classify us as terrorists,” he said.
He also denied the station is a Hezbollah mouthpiece. Although Hezbollah officials own 30% of its shares, the remainder are controlled by about 50 businessmen including Christians and Sunni Muslims. ”We are not just for one sect. We are a balanced station,” he said.
Al-Manar’s moment of glory may be passing. Eight days ago, Nasrallah gave a key interview to a competing channel, NTV. Analysts speculated that he wanted to widen Hezbollah’s appeal to non-Shia Lebanese.
Al-Manar’s schedules are due to return to normal this week, with the return of children’s and sports programmes. Meanwhile most of the 200 staff — 70 of them journalists — will continue to work from remote offices, unaware of where their headquarters lies.
”We are a target, we are listed as terrorists, so this is necessary,” said Farhad, with a shrug. ”But God willing, it will all come to a happy end.” – Guardian Unlimited Â