Al-Jazeera shelves US border film

The minutemen patrol Arizona looking for illegal immigrants

The Arabic TV channel al-Jazeera will not film a report about the US-Mexico border after a civilian border patrol group condemned the idea.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an anti-illegal immigration organisation that patrols the border in Arizona, called al-Jazeera a "terrorist TV station".

The group's leader said allowing al-Jazeera to film would be like aiding an enemy scouting mission.

Al-Jazeera said the group's reaction

was a blow to press freedom.

A spokesman for the station, Jihad Ballout, said that its original intention was for its Washington bureau to film a report about economic and security issues in the area, but the safety of its staff was its most important consideration.

But he said the project had not been abandoned.

"The topic remains an important one from an editorial perspective, so it's not abandoned as a project," he told Reuters news agency.

"Misconceptions about al-Jazeera are being perpetuated in some quarters to the detriment of not just al-Jazeera but the concept of a free press."

The minutemen, who began patrolling the Arizona section of the frontier in April, vowed to "resist" any filming in the area, al-Jazeera said.

'Insane policy'

Al-Jazeera regularly airs videos by Islamic extremist groups

The station's proposal to film prompted a complaint to the US Department of Homeland Security, and drew political criticism.

"It is insane policy to allow al-Jazeera to film Arizona's unsecured border with Mexico and then broadcast it to the very people who perpetrated 9/11," said Trent Franks, a Republican Congressman for Arizona.

On its website, the minutemen portrayed the decision to cancel filming as an "anti-terrorism victory".

"The world's most prolific terrorism television network has cancelled its recon operation at the Arizona/Mexico border," the group said in a statement.

Minuteman President Chris Simcox added: "I'll have no part in aiding and abetting the enemy, and will continue to work to protect our country from terrorists who are clearly looking at our unsecured borders as the pathway to destroy America."