Lebanese officials and local mass media delegation discuss Arabsat arbitrary decision against Al-Manar TV with Premier Tammam Slam.

A delegation of the local media outlets met the Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Slam in the Grand Serail on Wednesday to express solidarity with the domestic mass media following the Arab Satellite Communications Organization's illegal decision to block Al-Manar TV from its channels.

The Arab satellite operator Arabsat - without any previous notification or legal justification - blocked the broadcast of Al-Manar TV last week via its channels, in a breach of the contract signed between both parties.

Information Minister stressed after the meeting that blocking Al-Manar TV represents violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and circumvention of the audiovisual law.

"We shall take the necessary procedures to protect the local channels from any measure that might affect their rights or harm the Lebanese sovereignty, which only has the guardianship of those channels, minister Ramzi Jreij said speaking to reporters.

"It is forbidden to circumvent of this law in order that stations - which should provide technical services - may question the TV channels over alleged mistakes," Jreij added.

For his part, Al-Manar TV General Director, Ibrahim Farhat, stressed the channel right to follow up the case, and stated that the Information Ministry has obtained the whole file and shall communicate with Arabsat's chairperson regarding the rights of the Lebanese Republic and the Lebanese sovereignty.

"We believe that Arabsat has violated the Lebanese sovereignty by adopting such measure," Farhat said.

"Today, we mainly tackled the ways to protect the domestic media from unilateral measures that aim at blocking the broadcast in accordance with certain content and without discussing the matter with the concerned authorities," he added.

The conferees, moreover, agreed on taking the necessary procedures to solve the case and to protect the Lebanese arena from any similar unilateral measures.