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Attacks on the Press in 1999: Lebanon
Committee to Protect Journalists mideast@cpj.org
22 March 2000
Since 1990, when Lebanon began its recovery from 15 years of
civil war and political strife, the country's press has struggled to
regain its formerly dominant position in Middle East journalism.
A variety of private newspapers and radio and television stations
exist today, many offering generally solid news coverage and
criticism of the government. But state legal harassment,
intimidation of journalists, and self-censorship persist as serious
obstacles to the free flow of information.
In August, authorities initiated legal actions against a number of
journalists for covering the controversial book From Israel to Damascus, written by Robert Hatem, the onetime bodyguard of
ex‚Lebanese Christian warlord, former minister, and current
member of Parliament Elie Hobeika. The book is an unauthorized
biography of Hobeika that contains sordid allegations of
philandering, torture, and assassination.
In August, publisher and local press-union head Milhem Karam
was charged with defamation and violating a ban against publishing
excerpts from the book after he ran an interview with Hatem in a
number of his publications, including the Arabic-language
magazine Al-Hawadeth and the French-language Revue du Liban.
State prosecutors also charged Paul Salem, owner of the monthly
magazine Lebanon Report, and Jamil Mroue, the magazine's
publisher, after he published an article about the book. Although
the cases were technically pending at year's end, authorities
seemed reluctant to pursue them, perhaps because they were
embarrassed by the protests of local journalists.
Lebanese journalists remain vulnerable to a host of vaguely
worded criminal statutes. In particular, criminal-libel laws have
been used frequently against newspapers that criticized government
officials or foreign heads of state. Such cases are tried in felony
courts. Although there is no censorship of the local press, the
internal security agency screens foreign publications entering the
country and has banned the distribution of media that report
unfavorably on local affairs.
Like the print media, television and radio are subject to restrictive
laws, such as Decree 7997 of 1996, which bans stations from
broadcasting news that, in the judgment of authorities, seeks to
"inflame or incite sectarian or religious chauvinism" or contains
"slander, disparagement, disgrace, [or] defamation." The
Audiovisual Law (1994) empowers the Ministry of Information to
close television and radio stations that violate such statutes.
In 1998, the government reversed its ban on news programs
transmitted abroad by Lebanese satellite-television channels--a
move that was triggered by a talk-show program during which a
member of Parliament harshly criticized the prime minister then,
Rafik al-Hariri. But news broadcasts reportedly still remain
subject to prior censorship.
In August, the Lebanese Broadcasting Authority threatened to
suspend the private Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation
International (LBCI) for violating government guidelines barring
coverage of official Israeli events. The station had aired a news
item that quoted Israeli foreign minister David Levy urging
Lebanon to join the peace process. Levy made this comment to an
LBCI reporter in Jordan on the occasion of an Israeli-Jordanian
ceremony marking the opening of a bridge between the two
countries. The government did not follow through on its threat,
but LBCI said that it was taking disciplinary measures against its
Amman bureau.
Lebanese journalists were not immune to violent attack. On
October 11, a group of Lebanese photojournalists, working with
the local and foreign media, were assaulted by Lebanese soldiers
joined by security guards from a fertilizer factory in the northern
town of Selaata. Some of the journalists' cameras were damaged or
confiscated during the melee. They had been accompanying a
group of activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace
who were attempting to stage a peaceful protest at the factory,
which they accused of polluting Lebanese waters.
Syria's controversial military presence, which critics dubbed an
"occupation," continued to exert a negative impact on press
freedom. The memories of 1976, when Syrian troops occupied and
temporarily closed the offices of several newspapers upon their
arrival in Beirut, are still fresh in the minds of most Lebanese
journalists. Several journalists who criticized Assad's regime in
the early eighties were mysteriously assassinated in Beirut. As a
result, self-censorship in reporting about Syrian affairs remained
widespread. Local media have cited the reports of international
human-rights groups on Syria, but Lebanese journalists steer clear
of direct criticism that could trigger Syrian retaliation.
Some Lebanese journalists contend that a continued Syrian
presence in the country will further stunt Lebanon's ability to
attain the high level of press freedom enjoyed before the 1975
civil war. "[Lebanon] will not be able to regain its position as a
leading center for [regional] journalism as long as the Syrians are
there," said one longtime Lebanese reporter. "There will always be
a ceiling on freedoms." The same journalist contended that the
Lebanese "lament the fact that we don't have something like
Al-Jazeera [the Qatar-based satellite news channel]. We have all
the talent and professional capabilities, but even stations like LBCI
can't compete with Al-Jazeera in terms of news. They don't have
the freedom."
February 28
Ilan Roeh, Israel Radio KILLED
Roeh, 32, was a reporter with Israel Radio. He was killed along with three
Israeli military personnel when a roadside bomb exploded in Israeli-occupied
south Lebanon.
Roeh, a veteran correspondent who had covered south Lebanon for five years,
was traveling in a military convoy between the Lebanese villages of Kawkaba
and Hasbaya (about four miles north of the Israeli border) when the bomb
went off, destroying the armored Mercedes in which he was riding. The
Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack. Among
the dead were Brig. Gen. Erez Gerstein, the highest-ranking Israeli officer
killed in Lebanon since 1982.
September 2
Cosette Elias Ibrahim, Al-Liwaa IMPRISONED
Israeli-occupation forces detained Ibrahim, a Lebanese journalism-school
graduate and free-lance reporter who has worked for various newspapers,
including the daily Al-Liwaa, in the town of Rumaish in Israeli-occupied
south Lebanon. Ibrahim was in Rumaish to visit family; unconfirmed reports
suggest that she was also planning to report on the living conditions of people
in occupied south Lebanon.
Ibrahim was taken to the Khiam detention facility in Israel's occupied zone. It
is unclear whether she was seized by Israeli soldiers or by members of the
Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army. The motive for her detention is also
unclear. Israeli authorities have accused Ibrahim of collaborating with
Hezbollah guerrillas and providing the Lebanese army with information about
Israeli military activities in the region.
Lebanese journalists and local human-rights organizations, however, believe
that like many other residents of the occupied zone, Ibrahim was detained for
refusing to collaborate with Israeli forces. Others maintain that Israeli
authorities took offense at articles she wrote about the situation in south
Lebanon.
CPJ protested Ibrahim's illegal detention in a September 16 letter to Israeli
prime minister Ehud Barak. At year's end Ibrahim remained incommunicado
in Khiam, where she was being held without charges or other legal
formalities.
October 11
Hussein Malla, Associated Press ATTACKED
Elie Yammine, Murr TV ATTACKED
Several journalists ATTACKED
A group of Lebanese and foreign photojournalists were violently assaulted by
Lebanese soldiers and employees of a fertilizer factory in the northern town
of Selaata. The journalists had been accompanying a group of Greenpeace
activists who were attempting to stage a peaceful protest at the factory, which
they accused of polluting Lebanese waters.
Several photographers, as well as activists, were struck with rifle butts and
had their cameras confiscated or damaged. Among those severely beaten were
Hussein Malla, a photographer for the Associated Press, and Elie Yammine, a
cameraman for the local Murr TV.
