August 18, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-us-Sani 19, 1424

PARIS, Aug 17: France’s governmental broadcast watchdog authority will be calling in shortly for questioning the local representative of Egyptian satellite channel ESC, to protest the broadcast last month of an Egyptian-made mini-series “Horseman without a saddle” that the CSA says it considers as “anti- Semitic.”

A spokesman for the CSA, which authorizes all broadcast of TV images in France or over the French airwaves, said that numerous complaints had been filed over the series, which, says the spokesman, “derives from the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’” a book that was originally published in France in the 19th century.

RSF: Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) has condemned the Algerian government for the method it’s devised of discouraging its national press from revealing too many political scandals.

As matters now stand, says RSF spokesman Virginie Locussol, six newspapers have been summoned by their printers to come up with hypothetical back payments or else be forced to suspend publication.