Beyond Roxana Saberi: Javed Iqbal Jailed in US for Al-Manar News Broadcasts

This week Javed Iqbal, a Pakistani citizen and US resident, was jailed for six years for carrying the broadcasts of al-Manar, the television channel affiliated with the Lebanese political movement Hezbollah.

Iqbal, through his New York-based company HDTV Ltd, broadcast al-Manar for several months between 2005 and 2006 to paying customers. For prosecutors, this made him "Hezbollah's man in New York City". A second defendant connected with HDTV Ltd, Saleh Elahwal, has pled guilty and awaits sentencing.

Al-Manar is an established broadcaster in the Middle East, and its footage has been used by other outlets such as Fox and CNN. (I have been interviewed for their English-language programmes and follow their news output closely.) However, US authorities added al-Manar to its list of terrorist organisations in 2004, warning that that anyone who "solicits funds or other things of value for al-Manar" would be prosecuted. Other countries, including France and Canada, also imposed a ban, although the channel is easily accessed via the Internet.

Apart from a brief article by Adam Liptak in The New York Times in October 2007, there has been no attention to the case in the US.