الاتحاد الكاثوليكي العالمي للصحافة- لبنان اوسيب – لبنان
Antelias, September 5th, 2002
1 – The decision of closing MTV channel chocked the Lebanese public opinion because what happened exceeds the matter of closing any specific channel and threatens the democratic basises of the Lebanese society. This decision gives notice to future similar procedures which may attack at any time all mass Medias and their employees at any pretext.
2 – According to certain jurals, especially those who are in the power, this decision is a discretional and political decision which harms the independence principle of judiciary, and reduces the Lebanese trust towards the State and its institutions, in a period it seems that the Lebanese are mostly in need of consolidating this trust.
3 – The way the said decision was applied is against the simplest civilized principles in dealing with the citizens, especially publicists. The fights images which happened in front of the said channel building and transmitted by mass Medias harm the security forces and the Lebanese reputation.
4 – This decision did not take in consideration the destiny of these institutions employees or the destiny of hundreds of families who were living from it, in a period the media sector suffers from a crucial crisis in the work market.
5 – Encountering the Lebanese and Arab mass media during this period may be beneficiary to Zionist media which began to apply a plan aiming to strike the Arab media, deform the image of Arabs in front of the international public opinion and show them as terrorists against civilization and democracy.
6 – We finally ask ourselves the following: does not this decision threaten these steps for conciliation and dialogue which the Lebanese President began to work for and which the Lebanese began to be marked by?
Translated by: Joyce Tary
