January 3, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 29, 1423

BEIRUT, Jan 2: Lebanon banned a TV programme on Saudi Arabia to protect its good relations with the oil-rich kingdom, the country’s prosecutor general said Thursday.

“The ban was decided to safeguard relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, where a large number (around 150,000) of Lebanese work,” Adnan Addum told AFP.

The private station New Television (NTV) scrapped the programme it was to broadcast late on Wednesday under pressure from the government, which cut NTV’s satellite link-up.

NTV is a fierce critic of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who is a personal friend of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd. It refused to allow the programme to be subjected to censorship.—AFP