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Lebanon Saw Alarming Decline in Press Freedom under Aoun

Lebanon's former President Michel Aoun delivers a speech to mark the end of his mandate, outside the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on October 30, 2022. (AFP)
Lebanon's former President Michel Aoun delivers a speech to mark the end of his mandate, outside the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on October 30, 2022. (AFP)
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Lebanon Saw Alarming Decline in Press Freedom under Aoun

Lebanon's former President Michel Aoun delivers a speech to mark the end of his mandate, outside the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on October 30, 2022. (AFP)
Lebanon's former President Michel Aoun delivers a speech to mark the end of his mandate, outside the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on October 30, 2022. (AFP)

Lebanon witnessed an alarming drop in the “world press freedom rating” under the rule of former President Michel Aoun, whose term ended on Monday.

His six-year term witnessed more 801 violations against media and cultural freedoms, revealed a report by the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom at the Samir Kassir Foundation

It said Lebanon’s ranking approached the level of tyrannical and police states in wake of the escalation in repressive practices and violations against freedom of expression.

The 20th World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Lebanon ranked 98 in 2016 but fell 32 places to 130 out of 180 countries in 2022.

The violations ranged from assassinations, armed attacks against media properties, journalists and activists by official and unofficial parties, the summoning and interrogation of journalists and activists, threats and bullying, the filing of lawsuits, official and unofficial censorship of cultural works and activities, blocking of e-content, the jailing of journalists, and the issuing of verdicts by non-competent courts, such as the military court.

The practices also included the excessive use of force and unjustified violence against demonstrators, photographers, journalists and correspondents.

The report further underlined the major violations committed against journalists, activists and even citizens who were summoned, detained and questioned over tweets or posts on social media and other online platforms on charges of insulting the president.

It did not mention violations committed by Aoun’s supporters, such as “breaking into media headquarters, bullying and disinformation campaigns, or physical assault on reporters and photographers, all of which are practices carried out by most of the parties in the ruling system in Lebanon,” the center revealed.

The report stressed that “this systematic repressive approach, which was adopted by the political authority in cooperation with the security services and public prosecutions, was aimed at silencing all who criticize the politicians in the country.”

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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets into northern and central Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they also treated two women in their 50s who were wounded in northern Israel.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.