After more than 41 years of broadcasting, the first television station in the Middle East shut down Thursday night, reported the Daily Star.
State-run Tele-Liban went off the air at midnight and until it restarts in three months, the familiar blue-and-white striped logo will be the only reminder of the station’s existence, said the paper.
The Financial Times described the last minutes.
“In its final news bulletin, tearful presenters recalled Tele-Liban's 41-year-old history as the Middle East's first television station - a pioneer in news, arts and light entertainment.
‘Life tomorrow for us is lifeless," said Christian Ossi, the news editor. "The sun of Tele-Liban will not rise.’
The 500 staff left the building in Talat Khayat, west Beirut, facing an uncertain future after the government voted to close the station for three months in order to restructure and privatise. “
The Star added that mixed feelings could be read on Wednesday on the faces of TL employees: despair, anger, hope, disbelief, nostalgia but above all, uncertainty about the future.
From the early hours of the morning, they filed through the halls of station headquarters in Tallet al-Khayyat, side by side with the porters who were emptying the building of broadcasting equipment, turning what was recently thought to be impossible into a reality.
The minister of information, Ghazi Aridi, sought to paint an upbeat picture of the situation. He was quoted by the Lebanese paper as telling employees who gathered in the building’s lobby, TL would be reopened before the May 25 deadline.
“Only then it will be a new institution with new by-laws,” he promised, adding that when recruitment starts priority will be given to “qualified TL personnel who can accept and abide by the new rules.”
Aridi urged the employees to ignore rumors about the station’s future, promising to bear “full responsibility” for his remarks.
“But I will not be held accountable for rumors that are based on speculation.”
During his speech, a clearly unhappy Aridi was equally firm with the employees who interrupted him. “I understand your concerns and your problems, and this is why I’m talking to you now; otherwise, I would have talked to the director and told him what I have to say and left.”
“I realize that injustices have taken place, but that doesn’t mean that the problem should drag longer than it already has,” Aridi said. “There are some unpleasant decisions that need to be made. Without them, the station will never get on its feet.”
He also assured employees that no one would be dismissed without due compensation.
However, the minister’s words failed to reassure many.
The country's deep economic crisis suddenly prompted the government to act, said the Financial Times.
At $24bn, Lebanon's public debt is 150 percent of gross domestic product, one of the world's highest. Interest payments absorb 45 percent of government spending and revenue funds just 49 percent of spending.
Last week Prime Minister Rafik Hariri persuaded the cabinet to agree to the lay-offs at Tele-Liban and to accept a law making possible the privatization of Electricite du Liban.
Tele-Liban costs just $33m a year, but its closure was a powerful statement of intent. Hariri went to Paris on Monday and Tuesday for meetings, chaired by president Jacques Chirac, with the European Commission and World Bank that secured $458m (70 percent in low-interest loans, and 30 percent grants) to support privatization and tightening public spending.
According to the English daily, there is talk in Hariri's camp of using receipts from privatizing electricity, telecoms, water and the state airline to reduce domestic debt, which is 70 percent of the total and at a higher rate of interest than foreign debt – Alabwaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
