Al-Arabiya rejects murder incitement charge by Iraqi Council

DUBAI, Nov 24 (AFP) - Dubai-based television Al-Arabiya rejected Monday charges by Iraq's Governing Council that its broadcast of a Saddam Hussein tape has incited murder, after earlier agreeing to heed a ban on its reporting from the restive country.

"Al-Arabiya regrets this surprising measure and rejects the violence incitement charge by the interim Governing Council and confirms that its policy adhered and still adheres to covering the news in an objective and precise manner," said the Saudi-owned satellite news channel in a statement sent to AFP.

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Al-Arabiya's bureau chief in Baghdad said earlier that the channel will stop filing material from the country until the affair is settled legally.

The channel said that the way the Iraqi government can deal with the surging violence in the country is by "curing its causes and not by punishing media, which only reports on events and does not create them."

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