Israel Matzav

Sarkozy urges networks not to show Merah videos; Al-Jazeera: 'We'll think about it'; UPDATED - No show!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged those television networks that have video of Algerian Islamic terrorist Mohamed Merah murdering three young Jewish children, a rabbi and three soldiers not to show the videos under any circumstances. Al-Jazeera, which is known to have the videos, has said 'we'll think about it.'

Those videos are what is referred to as 'terror porn.'

"Terror porn" is what economist Veronique de Rugy calls it. Why "porn"? "Because porn sells, [and] terrorism sells even better," she says. "It's great for politicians. They can campaign on the fact that they are protecting us. They also can campaign on the fact that they're bringing more money to their states."

So why is Sarkozy trying to prevent it from being shown? Probably because he genuinely fears that the videos would 'inspire' others.

UPDATE 2:40 PM

There's now a report on Twitter that al-Jazeera will not air the videos.

UPDATE 3:00 PM

Israel Radio confirms that al-Jazeera has announced that it will not show the videos because they don't add anything that is not already known and because they believe that showing them would be unethical.

Labels: al-Jazeera, France, terror attacks

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:39 PM