Antelias, September 19th, 2008

The International Union of Catholic Press – Lebanon announced that it fully supports the media establishments currently enduring all kinds of pressures. UCIP called on both Press and Journalists Syndicates to take action to strengthen the position of the media establishments and to sooth the political speech that will result in appeasing the tension of the speech in the media.

Hereafter is the text of the statement:

1-      UCIP – Lebanon has noticed lately an increase in tensions and hassles on the Lebanese media and a number of attacks among which the physical aggressions against an LBC team in Taalabaya, in addition to violent speech aggressions against other T.V. stations’ teams to forbid them from completing the news coverage.

2-      The T.V. station “ New T.V. “ is threatened of being forbidden from broadcasting and even of annulment especially after issuing a financial verdict against it. We also mention the case of “ MTV”.UCIP – Lebanon reiterates that closing any T.V. station or taking any similar measurements will threaten the survival of those stations and is considered  as an attack against public liberties and a recurrence of social tragedies.

3-      UCIP – Lebanon considers that Lebanese media are currently facing many challenges representing a tremendous pressure on the media and on their employees. This is reflecting on the general media scene in Lebanon.UCIP – Lebanon appeals to both Syndicates of Journalists and Press to launch a workshop with the objectives of resolving the issues faced by the Lebanese Media and to depict their weaknesses and to advise on the needed improvements in order to strengthen the media positions.

4-      UCIP Lebanon welcomes the closing statement issued by the national dialogue committee as a result of its meetings. This statement has asked to ease the tone of voice of the political and the media speeches that will definitely lead to ease the tensions.