Al-Manar was placed on a US terrorist watchlist in December 2004. Reporters without Borders said that no evidence was presented of Al-Manar's involvement with terrorism. The main evidence provided for Al-Manar being anti-semitic was its partial showing, in October–November 2003, of the Syrian-produced 29-part series "Ash-Shatat" ("The Diaspora"). "Al Manar management apologized for airing the series, dropped it and explained that the Station had purchased it without first viewing the entire series." Lebanon's ambassador to the United States, Farid Abboud, protested: "If you want simply to demonize or eliminate one side, you're not going to advance the issue. If you are going to focus on one side simply because of the political message, it's unacceptable and it's a grave breach of the freedom of speech.".