MTV Lebanon, a well-known Lebanese television station, was banned Monday from covering parliamentary consultations for the country’s next prime minister at Baabda Palace, the official residence of the president of Lebanon.
According to a statement released Monday by the Lebanese Presidency, the decision was made on the basis the television station had repeatedly insulted the president, used inappropriate adjectives for him, and addressed him without his formal title.
The Free Patriotic Movement, the party which Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun founded, had previously declared a boycott of the station last week, accusing it of becoming a “tool for attacking the president.”
In the statement Monday, the presidency sought to remind MTV that “all of these violations were punishable by law.”
In Lebanon, insulting, defaming or slandering the presidency in Lebanon is a criminal offense that can lead to up to two years in prison.
However, the presidency stated Monday that MTV’s barring from Baabda Palace “cannot be considered any violation of media freedom,” stressing that this was something President Aoun himself was “keen to adhere to.”
For civil society activists and journalists alike, this has done little to quell fears.
“Banning MTV Lebanon from covering parliamentary consultation in Baabda – allegedly because the president’s political party boycotts the station – is not only an appalling attack on free speech in Lebanon, but also show the president using his position to further the interests of his political party," said Aya Majzoub, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch had previously warned in March that a spate of prosecutions since the outbreak of nationwide protests in October 2019 against activists and journalists critical of the government policies was threatening free speech in Lebanon.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
