Abolish Government Restrictions on the Press
If ever there was a country in dire need of a free Press Lebanon is that country. The extent to which corruption has become part of the culture and day to day lives of the Lebanese is simply shameful.
But the Press, whose job it is to serve as society’s floodlights, shedding light on impropriety and corruption, lacks the requisite freedom to expose the corrupt. It is hobbled by a Press Law that is an archaic throw-back to Ottoman repression of public freedoms and which uses fear of prosecution and imprisonment as a means to silence the bravest among us.
The Press and Media Law is tantamount to a media censorship law, whereby someone from outside the profession decides what the rules are and who is guilty of breaking them at any one time. It is a stick wielded by the state to keep journalists in line and to be used at its convenience of course to target political opponents.
It is a dangerous road that we as a nation travel today, one shrouded in the fog of lies, half truths, rumor and innuendo. Half truths such as we hear in the company of gossips can easily be turned in to gospel truth by an uninformed and ignorant public in the absence of information from more credible sources.
But a people kept in the dark, given only a few tantalizing snippets of information in a news broadcast then left to fill in the huge gaps of information for themselves, are not a free people. Our democratic right to govern ourselves has been violated by a lack of timely credible information, information that is vital for any society to be able to make informed decisions or give informed consent.
The fact is the local Press are psychologically whipped and scared out of their minds, though they would loathe admitting it. Except for very few, the Press shy away from writing anything that could result in closure of the media outlet, a heavy fine or worse. The Press in every democratic country in the world operates under the law and is not nor should it be above it, but we must ask ourselves what kind of law do we want, a restrictive one or one that guarantees the maximum freedom and assumes 'absence of malice' on the part of the Press. The Press are dubbed the Fourth Estate because they are not subject to government control and regulation.
We are not just violating the right of our own people to practice and enjoy informed self government; we are violating the spirit of international charters and treaties to which our country is a signatory. Chiefly among these is Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Article 19 states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
An organization calling itself Article 19 (XIX), the Global Campaign for Free Expression, issued a memorandum last July from London on the Draft Law Amending the Press Law of Lebanon. In its main recommendations it called for the following:
_ The requirement for journalists to be admitted to the Press Association Roll, along with the sanctions for pretending to be a journalist, should be removed.
_ All entry requirements for media professionals should be removed.
_ The reciprocity rule concerning permission for foreign journalists to work in
Lebanon should be removed.
_ The licensing regime for newspaper vendors should be abolished.
_ The sanctions of prohibiting the practice of journalism and striking one’s name permanently from the press roll should be abolished.
_ The Lebanese Press Association and the Lebanese Editors Association should be replaced by independent self-regulatory professional bodies, free of State control and in which membership is voluntary. In particular, the role of the Minister of
Information and the Head of Department of the Press and Legal Affairs in relationship to the LPA and LEA should be abolished.
_ The licensing system for periodic publications should be abolished.
_ A failure to comply with registration requirements for periodic publications should not lead to confiscation and/or suspension.
_ Mandatory provision of copies of periodicals to the Ministry of Information and the Prosecutor’s Office should be abolished. Any deposit requirement should be limited to the national library service and archives.
_ The Press Council should be established by the media community voluntarily, rather than by law and it should not be subject to government control. The scope and nature of its powers should be clarified and it should be required to conduct its activities transparently. The election of its members should be based on clear criteria following public consultations.
In the memorandum the organization also makes the following observations:
“The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Lebanon acceded in 1972, imposes formal legal obligations on State parties to respect its provisions. Article 19 of the ICCPR guarantees the right to freedom of expression in the following terms: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media.”
We will never move forward or develop as a democratic nation unless Press freedoms are deemed absolute and sacred and state restrictions on those freedoms are removed. Only the corrupt and those who have things to hide need fear a free Press.
But the Press, whose job it is to serve as society’s floodlights, shedding light on impropriety and corruption, lacks the requisite freedom to expose the corrupt. It is hobbled by a Press Law that is an archaic throw-back to Ottoman repression of public freedoms and which uses fear of prosecution and imprisonment as a means to silence the bravest among us.
The Press and Media Law is tantamount to a media censorship law, whereby someone from outside the profession decides what the rules are and who is guilty of breaking them at any one time. It is a stick wielded by the state to keep journalists in line and to be used at its convenience of course to target political opponents.
It is a dangerous road that we as a nation travel today, one shrouded in the fog of lies, half truths, rumor and innuendo. Half truths such as we hear in the company of gossips can easily be turned in to gospel truth by an uninformed and ignorant public in the absence of information from more credible sources.
But a people kept in the dark, given only a few tantalizing snippets of information in a news broadcast then left to fill in the huge gaps of information for themselves, are not a free people. Our democratic right to govern ourselves has been violated by a lack of timely credible information, information that is vital for any society to be able to make informed decisions or give informed consent.
The fact is the local Press are psychologically whipped and scared out of their minds, though they would loathe admitting it. Except for very few, the Press shy away from writing anything that could result in closure of the media outlet, a heavy fine or worse. The Press in every democratic country in the world operates under the law and is not nor should it be above it, but we must ask ourselves what kind of law do we want, a restrictive one or one that guarantees the maximum freedom and assumes 'absence of malice' on the part of the Press. The Press are dubbed the Fourth Estate because they are not subject to government control and regulation.
We are not just violating the right of our own people to practice and enjoy informed self government; we are violating the spirit of international charters and treaties to which our country is a signatory. Chiefly among these is Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Article 19 states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
An organization calling itself Article 19 (XIX), the Global Campaign for Free Expression, issued a memorandum last July from London on the Draft Law Amending the Press Law of Lebanon. In its main recommendations it called for the following:
_ The requirement for journalists to be admitted to the Press Association Roll, along with the sanctions for pretending to be a journalist, should be removed.
_ All entry requirements for media professionals should be removed.
_ The reciprocity rule concerning permission for foreign journalists to work in
Lebanon should be removed.
_ The licensing regime for newspaper vendors should be abolished.
_ The sanctions of prohibiting the practice of journalism and striking one’s name permanently from the press roll should be abolished.
_ The Lebanese Press Association and the Lebanese Editors Association should be replaced by independent self-regulatory professional bodies, free of State control and in which membership is voluntary. In particular, the role of the Minister of
Information and the Head of Department of the Press and Legal Affairs in relationship to the LPA and LEA should be abolished.
_ The licensing system for periodic publications should be abolished.
_ A failure to comply with registration requirements for periodic publications should not lead to confiscation and/or suspension.
_ Mandatory provision of copies of periodicals to the Ministry of Information and the Prosecutor’s Office should be abolished. Any deposit requirement should be limited to the national library service and archives.
_ The Press Council should be established by the media community voluntarily, rather than by law and it should not be subject to government control. The scope and nature of its powers should be clarified and it should be required to conduct its activities transparently. The election of its members should be based on clear criteria following public consultations.
In the memorandum the organization also makes the following observations:
“The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Lebanon acceded in 1972, imposes formal legal obligations on State parties to respect its provisions. Article 19 of the ICCPR guarantees the right to freedom of expression in the following terms: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media.”
We will never move forward or develop as a democratic nation unless Press freedoms are deemed absolute and sacred and state restrictions on those freedoms are removed. Only the corrupt and those who have things to hide need fear a free Press.
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