Hezbollah denounces CNN over tweet firing

Hezbollah criticized CNN on Thursday for letting go of Middle East editor Octavia Nasr for a message she wrote in Twitter, AFP reports.

Her tweet had praised the late Shiite cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.

According to AFP, "Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi denounced the 'intellectual terrorism represented by the firing of journalist Octavia Nasr of CNN after she expressed sadness' at the death of Fadlallah."

Hezbollah added: "This measure reveals the double standard in the West regarding matters in the region and unmasks the United States, which pretends to protect freedom of speech."

In the tweet in question, Nasr wrote, "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah ... One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot."

She pulled her statement in a CNN blog post after people expressed concern that she had praised someone on a U.S. terrorist list who approved of suicide bombings and expressed anti-American views. Nasr wrote that she was only referring to his stance on women's rights.

"It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I'm sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah's life's work," Nasr wrote. "That's not the case at all."

AFP adds the following on an internal e-mail circulated at CNN: "Parisa Khosravi, senior vice president for CNN International Newsgathering, said...she had spoken with Nasr and 'we have decided that she will be leaving the company.'"