Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said that attempts to damage Lebanon’s relations with Arabs and the falsification of the country’s Arab identity is a piracy attempt.
“When there are attempts to strike Lebanon’s relations with Arab brothers, falsifying the intentions of the Lebanese towards the Arab countries, falsifying the intentions of our Arab brothers towards us, falsifying the Arab identity of Lebanon and our constant stand with Arab consensus and Arab interest, this is an attempt at piracy,” Hariri said in a speech.
“The primary success that we have achieved in Lebanon in [providing] security and stability for all Lebanese is threatened by attempts of piracy,” the prime minister said at the conference "Protecting Media Creativity from Piracy" organized at the Grand Serail by the Ministry of Information, in cooperation with the Directorate General of the Internal Security Forces and a group of leading media institutions.
“When you look at the map and see all that is happening around us in the region, and you see the stability and security in our small country of Lebanon but some [people] come to tell you that this isn’t an accomplishment, then that is a form of piracy.”
Hariri stressed that his government has made several achievements in less than 10 months, “from the electoral law, to the salaries scale, diplomatic and judicial appointments, the Economic and Social council, the state's first budget in 12 years, mobilizing support for the international conference in Paris to invest in Lebanon and the international conference in Rome to support the army and the security forces, the plan to confront the repercussions of the Syrian displaced, to dozens of laws that were pending, such as the law of partnership between the public and private sector, to putting the oil and gas on track, to joining the international transparency convention in the Sector, to the electricity plan, reducing Internet cost and accelerating it.”
“Someone comes and tells you that this government did not achieve anything: this is a piracy attempt,” he mocked.
As for Information Minister Melhem Riachi, his speech focused on the technical aspect of piracy. Lebanon comes in second place in terms of piracy in the Middle East and North Africa region, he said.
The rate of pirated CDs, DVDs and programs surpasses 50 percent, he added.
The minister revealed that efforts are underway to adopt a cybercrime law that aims to punish copyright infringement.
