France blacks out Tiger TV broadcast

By Asif Fuard

The French government has moved to prevent the LTTE from using French satellite facilities to broadcast its propaganda programmes.

The French police raided the studio of the Paris-based pro-LTTE channel National Television of Tamil Eelam (NTT) following a complaint lodged by Sri Lanka’s Ambassador Chithrangani Wageeshwara, Foreign Ministry sources said.

The raid came days after the Washington-based Intelsat stopped pro-LTTE groups from using its satellite facilities and in the wake of reports that these groups were trying to use the French satellite station Globecast for propaganda activities.

Globecast is a leading global content management and delivery company. It is the subsidiary of France Telecom. This company manages and transports, through its worldwide satellite and fibre network, 10 million hours of video and other rich media yearly for its core customer base of broadcasters, as well as corporate, government and retail clients.