Pia Kjærsgaard calls for ban on Arab TV channels

Pia Kjærsgaard DFThe leader of Denmark’s populist Danish People’s Party, on which the government relies for support, said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that pan-Arab television channels Al-Jazeera and Al Arabiya should be stopped from broadcasting to the country.

Pia Kjaersgaard, leader of parliament’s third-biggest party, accused the channels of sowing hatred against Western society in immigrant communities. The centre-right governing coalition said it did not support her views about the stations.

Kjaersgaard said she would look into reporting the TV stations to Danish regulatory authorities with the aim of getting their broadcasts blocked.

“My aim is merely to promote integration here which in certain residential areas has gone completely wrong, and that is to a large extent due to the inhabitants getting their news from these two TV stations only,” she said in an interview with the daily Berlingske Tidende. Their broadcasts are very full of hatred… They contribute to inculcating hatred against Western society.”

Reuters, 31 October 2010

Update:  See “Proposal to ban Arabic stations meets resistance”, Copenhagen Post, 2 November 2010