LONDON, Oct 11: Major television stations round the world refused on Thursday to stop broadcasting statements from Osama bin Laden despite calls from the White House to exercise caution because they might contain coded messages.

Most stressed that they had not been asked to show restraint by their governments, but said they would use their editorial judgment if more material from Osama came their way.

Osama’s broadcasts, which have included video of him at a guerilla training camp, have been channelled through the Arab satellite news station Al Jazeera, based in Qatar.

The US administration urged US television networks on Wednesday to curb broadcasts of osama’s statements, saying he might be trying to tell his followers to launch new attacks.

News chiefs from ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC television networks pledged to vet incoming feeds and not broadcast them live.

In Australia, media mogul Rupert Murdoch said his networks would not broadcast Osama video if it contained coded messages.

“We’ll do whatever is our patriotic duty,” said Australian-born Murdoch, now a US citizen.

His family interests control News Corp, whose holdings include the Fox News channel, Fox Television, Twentieth Century Fox, television stations and a stable of newspapers.

In London, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the issue of what to broadcast was a matter for the broadcasters. “We will leave it to them.”

A spokeswoman at Independent Television News said: “We will take each item on its merits.” The British Broadcasting Corporation said only that it had “received no requests” about the material.

Reuters, which distributes video footage to about 350 broadcasters worldwide, said it would treat the material on its merits.

EDITORIAL JUDGMENT: “If we were offered any (Osama) bin Laden video, we would exercise our normal editorial judgment on whether it was newsworthy before passing it on to our broadcast customers, who of course have the final decision on whether to put it out or not,” said Rodney Pinder, editor of Reuters Video News.—Reuters