Family feud on the airwaves

Rifaat's statement is broadcast every half hour on ANN

By BBC News Online's Martin Asser

Arab viewers of the London-based satellite TV channel Arab News Network (ANN) have been given an unusual change of programming following the death of President Hafez al-Assad.

They carried out measures in violation of the constitution and legitimacy

Rifaat al-Assad

As the funeral of the Syrian leader took place in Damascus, ANN broadcast Koranic verses interspersed every half hour with a statement condemning the succession of Bashar al-Assad, issued by the late president's brother Rifaat.

Rifaat owns a share in the station and his son Sumar founded it in 1997 - one of a number of Arabic TV outlets established in the UK since the late 1980s.

Brothers in arms: Rifaat (left) and Hafez before the rift

"O great departed one: You left behind a sudden and tragic vacuum," the announcer-read statement says. "Some people thought they could fill this vacuum, thinking it was easy to succeed you."

These people - evidently supporters of the elevation of Bashar, Hafez al-Assad's oldest surviving son - have "carried out measures in violation of the constitution and legitimacy," the seven-minute long statement says.

"They belittled the importance of popular will, deluding themselves into believing that crying alone would give them a certificate of good conduct, leadership, and representation."

Disgraced brother

Since his brother's death on Saturday, the tough and flamboyant Rifaat has made no secret of his belief that he is the rightful heir of the quiet strongman who ruled Syria for 30 years.

Syrian parliament: "Crying will not give them representation."

News editor Kasim Mazra'ani told the BBC that ANN had a policy of editorial impartiality, and was not supporting Rifaat's claim.

But the station's owners had insisted on broadcasting the statement after Rifaat was prevented from attending his brother's funeral.

"I'm hoping we can resume normal programmes as of tomorrow," he said.

Rifaat al-Assad has been living in exile since the 1980s when he staged a coup, returning to Syria briefly for his mother's funeral in 1998.

Last farewell

What can we do, go on the dole tomorrow?

ANN editor

There is a clumsily staged moment of drama at the end of the video clip as the female announcer looks down and says: "I have just received this fax from a person sitting with Dr Rifaat Ali al-Assad."

"The fax says Rifaat is weeping and wondering: My brother, would you have accepted that I would not embrace you in your last moment?"

The brother's faxed lament concludes with the late Hafez's ethereal reply: "'No, Rifaat, how much I wish that taking you in my arms was the last thing with which I bid farewell to life'."

British broadcasting rules

Schedules had been cleared for Koranic verses and Assad's image

The channel's broadcasts have come to the attention of Britain's TV watchdog, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), which says it is monitoring the station for political impartiality.

Mr Mazra'ani believes ANN staff have been put in an impossible position, caught between the wishes of their bosses and the code of the ITC.

"What are we supposed to do, go down to the social security office tomorrow?" he asks.

"There is a place for personal views, as long as it is obvious that that's what they are and they are balanced over time with a full range of views," an ITC spokeswoman said.

The station has not been in trouble with the ITC before, but it has experienced mass redundancies, The 140-strong staff was halved in 1999 to save money.