For the time being, count one less Arabist/Islamist/statist propaganda outlet:

The U.S.-appointed Governing Council banned a popular Arab satellite news channel from broadcasting from Iraq and seized equipment from its bureau in Baghdad on Monday after it aired a taped message purportedly from former president Saddam Hussein calling for attacks on Iraqis cooperating with the U.S. occupation.

U.S.-appointed or not, Iraq's current leaders are in step with the entire political spectrum (Item 'III') and offer powerful rationale for their actions:

Talabani said the threat amounted to "an incitement to murder."

"Inciting murder or violence is illegal under the laws of the entire world," he said. "Saddam in our eyes is a criminal, a torturer, a war criminal and whoever disseminates for him exposes himself to legal punishment."

Censorship is a delicate matter and should be used sparingly. In a yet-unstable country lacking a functioning elected government, however, press agencies casually sympathetic to the enemies of freedom - one of them accused of being infiltrated by Saddam's henchmen - have no place in a nascent public forum. Freedom demands responsibility, and for censorship this is one of those qualifying situations.