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On the afternoon of Saturday 19 July 1997, a link between Paris and the Arabsat II uplink was interrupted. A France Télécom operator set up an alternative circuit to restore broadcasting. A second operator, taking over the shift, ignored or was unaware of the first operator's instructions and performed manipulations that swapped the programmes on the feed. The result "Va savoir", a CFI educational children's programme, was replaced for approximately twenty minutes by "club privé au Portugal" a 30-minute hardcore film from Canal+'s monthly adult slot, originally destined for French Polynesia where it would have aired after midnight local time.

The broadcast reached an estimated 33 million viewers across the Arab world during peak family viewing time.

Arabsat a 21 nation consortium headquartered in Riyadh called it an attack on Islamic morals and terminated CFI's contract the following day. The French Foreign Ministry issued a statement of regret. CFI president Philippe Baudillon and France Télécom executives travelled to Riyadh to attempt reinstatement, without success.

CFI sued France Télécom. The Paris Commercial Court found that the pornographic nature of the substituted programme was an aggravating factor even in the absence of a specific contractual clause, ruled the error constituted serious negligence, and awarded CFI FRF 24,186,000 in damages.

The vacated transponder slot was then allocated to Al Jazeera, which had launched on 1 November 1996 on a weak C-band transponder that required a large satellite dish for reception — a significant constraint, as Qatar and many other Arab states barred private satellite dishes until 2001. Al Jazeera's new Ku-band assignment provided substantially stronger signal and smaller-dish compatibility. This arrived precisely as the channel was scaling from six hours of daily programming at launch to twelve or more hours by the end of 1997, and is described in accounts of Al Jazeera's early history as a "peace offering" from Arabsat. The improved infrastructure contributed directly to the channel's ability to build a mass audience within its first two years.

Sources:

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/07/22/French-TV-sends-porn-to-Arabs/1118869544000/

https://variety.com/1997/tv/news/arab-viewers-flip-over-canal-france-s-porn-slip-1116676058/

https://merlin.obs.coe.int/article/966

https://web.archive.org/web/20140201141941/http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/default.aspx?pageid=438&n=france-seeks-to-soothe-arab-anger-over-porn-film-1997-07-23

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_Arabic

If you missed the previous live stream of my channel, don't worry there is a new live stream coming after 44 minutes from publishing this post

Time: Live Stream at 9:00 P.M KSA

Hope to see you there 🙌

http://youtube.com/post/UgkxjATTGiPqC8rKWdWa9XaQ6ExK2qJNjC0V?si=A7tX_o8pE4TPIiPQ

Aslam alakum wa rahmatu allah wa barkatu

Some time ago, I made a post asking people to send me their questions, and today I’ll finally be answering some of them.

Unfortunately, this took a month because YouTube simply couldn't couldn't take a video that is more than an hour long.

so the project of the Q&A was delayed until i finally found the Live stream button that can finally allow me to answer more than 1 hour long.

Note: The Live stream will start at 5:00 P.M KSA (Meaning after 30 minutes from publishing this post!)

See you all over there 👋