Hezbollah shuts down Future media

Satcasters taken off air by opposition forces

By ALI JAAFAR

LONDON -- The violent clashes between Lebanon's pro-government forces and Hezbollah-led opposition have had an immediate impact on the country's TV biz after Hezbollah fighters forcibly shut down the media outlets of parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri's Future movement.

Satcasters Future TV and Future News were taken off the air Friday after Hezbollah members threatened to forcibly eject its employees, according to station director Nadim Al-Munla.

"They threatened to kill and attack our employees, and at the end of the day their safety must come first," said Al-Munla. "Both stations are off the air. Hezbollah members occupied the building and cut all the cables of the master control room. Our signal to the outside has been cut, but hopefully we will resume broadcasting soon from another location."

The Future movement's newspaper and radio station were also shuttered, with reports that the station's building in West Beirut, the scene of the fiercest fighting, had been set on fire.

The upturn in violence, which has led to Hezbollah gaining control of much of the majority Muslim West Beirut, proceeded from a general strike organized on Wednesday by the anti-government opposition. Lebanon's airport has been shut down, and access to many of the major roads in and out of Beirut have been closed off by opposition supporters.

Iconic Lebanese singer Fairuz, one of the few unifying figures in the divided country, was one of the hundreds of passengers left stranded in the Beirut airport Wednesday when the violence flared.

Lebanon has been politically divided ever since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Saad's father, on Valentine's Day 2005 with the country split between the pro-Western government and anti-government opposition, who receive their backing from Syria and Iran.

The situation has also left several Lebanese film execs uncertain about attending the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.