It’s necessary to report comments from leaders of terrorist groups in order to sustain the credibility of a U.S.-run Arabic language broadcaster, Condoleezza Rice said. The U.S. secretary of state, testifying Wednesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, rejected criticism of Al-Hurrah because it had aired comments by Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, and Hassan Nasrallah, who heads Hezbollah. Rice said Al-Hurrah had increased its news content to compete with other networks. Rice apologized for one incident in which Nasrallah was allowed to continue uninterrupted for 30 minutes, but said that a news station would necessarily include clips of men like Nasrallah and Haniyeh.”But what we’re hoping that Al-Hurrah can do, particularly if it can establish itself as a legitimate voice of the truth, if you will, much the way that Radio Free Europe did in the Cold War, is to provide an outlet for news of different kinds,” she said.
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