Lebanon / Middle East & North Africa

  
Undercover Israeli security personnel detain a Palestinian demonstrator during clashes at a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah December 13, 2017. (Reuters/Mohamad Torokman)

Journalists assaulted covering protests in Jerusalem

At least 13 journalists were injured while covering protests and violence that broke out in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem over U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement on December 7, 2017 that the U.S. will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, according to local and regional press freedom groups and news reports. At least…

Read More ›

Four Lebanese TV journalists fined for defamation and false news

Beirut’s Publication Court, headed by Judge Roukoz Rizk, on July 17, 2017, fined Mariam al-Bassam, head of News and Political Programs at the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Riyad Kobaissi, the head of the station’s investigative unit, Rami al-Amine, a reporter for the station, and Layal Mousa, an assistant reporter at the station, 2 million Lebanese pounds…

Read More ›

Police guard Lebanon's Ministry of Telecommunications in this April 14, 2014, file photo. (Reuters/Sharif Karim)

Lebanese minister prevents three journalists from attending news conference

Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Jamal al-Jarrah prevented Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) reporter Bassam Abou Zeid, LBCI cameraman Zaki Fagali, and Al-Jadeed TV cameraman Mohammad al-Samra from covering a June 22, 2017, news conference in Beirut, according to news reports and the Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom.

Read More ›

Journalist assaulted covering protest in Beirut

A security officer in civilian clothes and a uniformed soldier on June 16, 2017, struck French freelance journalist Philippine de Clermont Tonnere as she covered a protest in Beirut against a third extension of the Lebanese parliament’s term, the journalist told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Read More ›

Lebanese Internal Security Forces parade in downtown Beirut on the 70th anniversary of Lebanon's independence, November 22, 2013. (Reuters/Mohamed Azakir)

Court begins hearing colonel’s defamation suit against TV journalists

Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) Col. Nizar Bou Nasreddine on July 9, 2016, filed a lawsuit against Youmna Fawaz, a journalist for the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Tahseen Khayat, Al-Jadeed’s owner, and Al-Jadeed editor Mariam Bassam over the station’s broadcast in June and July 2016 of a report alleging corruption in the Lebanese Internal Security Forces,…

Read More ›

Workers remove broken glass from the windows of broadcaster Al-Jadeed's office in Beirut, February 15, 2017. Some 300 people attacked the building the previous night. (Reuters/Mohamed Azakir)

Mob attacks Lebanese TV station

New York, February 15, 2017–Lebanese authorities should immediately investigate yesterday’s attack on the independent TV channel Al-Jadeed, bring those responsible to justice, and take steps to ensure the safety of journalists operating in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Read More ›

Australian television journalists detained for two weeks in Lebanon

Four television journalists with the Australian broadcaster Channel Nine were released from a Lebanese prison on April 20, 2016, after two weeks in detention, Beirut’s English-language Daily Star newspaper reported.

Read More ›

Karma Khayat, pictured left in Al-Jadeed's newsroom. A conviction against her by the Special Tribunal of Lebanon has been overturned. (AP/Hussein Malla)

A missed opportunity at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

On March 8, the Appeals Panel of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon reversed the September 18 conviction of Karma Khayat, a journalist who had been ordered to pay a €10,000 (USD$11,064) fine because her channel broadcast interviews with confidential witnesses.

Read More ›

Journalists assaulted in Lebanon amid violent protests

At least eight journalists were physically assaulted while covering anti-government protests in Beirut on August 22 and August 23, 2015, according to news reports, the local press freedom group Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, or SKeyes, and CPJ research. One journalist sought treatment at a local hospital for injuries.

Read More ›

Lebanese army soldiers and residents gather at the site of an explosion in Nabi Osmane in the Bekaa Valley on March 17. (Reuters/Hassan Abdallah)

For journalists in Lebanon, Syrian dangers loom larger

The recent kidnapping of two journalists in Lebanon is the latest and most troubling evidence that the press is in increasing danger as the Syrian civil war spills over into Lebanese politics.

Read More ›