CAIRO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A new Arab League charter on satellite broadcasting adopted this month amounts to a "crude assault on free speech" that Arab governments should publicly reject, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
Arab governments, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, adopted a satellite broadcasting charter on Feb. 12 that will entrench state control over broadcasts and curtail political expression on the airwaves over a region of some 300 million people.
"Egypt and Saudi Arabia should be ashamed for sponsoring a proposal that would extend repression of free speech to airwaves across the region," said Joe Stork, the U.S.-based rights group's director for the Middle East and North Africa.
The Arab charter bans airing material seen as undermining "social peace, national unity, public order and general propriety", as well as criticising religions or defaming political, national or religious leaders.
"Many Arab states routinely use this language of 'state interests' and 'national sovereignty' as an excuse to imprison journalists and intimidate critics," Stork said in a statement.
"These so-called principles are nothing but a crude assault on free speech," he added.
Analysts say the charter is the Arab states' response to the relative freedom enjoyed by Arab satellite broadcasters, many of whom are privately financed and which encourage open political discussion of sensitive matters.
According to the charter, a host government can suspend or revoke the broadcasting licence of a broadcaster that violates the rules. Human Rights Watch said only Qatar and Lebanon had publicly opposed the document.
Qatar-based satellite channel Al Jazeera, seen as the most popular network in the Arab world, has said the charter would hinder independent reporting. The Committee to Protect Journalists has called it an attempt to quash already limited media freedom in the region.
Human Rights Watch said domestic laws in most Arab states already severely restrict the media and free expression, and only Jordan has a law guaranteeing free access to information, albeit with national security exemptions.
The group said that Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt had all targeted journalists or bloggers with arrests or prosecution in recent months, while Tunisia refused to accept the accreditation of a correspondent from Al Jazeera last year.
Iraq has closed down operations of at least three satellite television stations since 2004, while a Jordanian court upheld a two-year jail term last year for a former parliamentarian for disseminating false or exaggerated news, the rights group said. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Charles Dick)
