Mass Media in Lebanon

My Notes on the Lebanese Media based on

Mass Media in the Middle East: A Comprehensive Handbook Book by Yahya R. Kamalipour

Lebanese Media: Until the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war, Lebanon prospered, as it became a bridge between the East and West. With a flourishing economy and expanding press, Lebanon was on its way to exceptional national development. The civil war shook the Lebanese society’s foundations by weakening central government, damaged infrastructures, and decentralization of all major institutions including the mass media. But while the chaos and trauma of war hindered communication between the peoples in Lebanon, the number of media outlets actually increased during the war with the establishment of several new televisions stations, more than 100 radio station’s and dozens of newspapers and magazines – serving as an opportunity to distribute biased information to further sectarian and political division. As a result, the powerful influence of the press was immediately recognized and too attractive for most political parties to ignore. 

The introduction of printing can be traced back to 1610 with priests attempting to print religious documents. Owing to the low literacy rate, this effort lasted for a short period. The first Lebanese newspaper didn't’ appear until 1894. During Ottoman rule, Lebanese print media was severely limited especially in 1916 when 16 journalists were hanged for stirring up public opinion. Press restrictions didn’t loosen up even under the French Mandate that lasted between 1920-1942. After Lebanese independence, there was a small surge of media expansion but was limited with a Lebanese press law ban that put a cap (25 dailies) on the number of legal newspapers to be published. In 1962, the Lebanese press law was passed abolishing several of its controls while prohibiting the publication of news that “endangers national society” and remains in effect to this day.
Lebanese papers do not have specialized editorial pages and have n place for letters to the editor to be published. Serious economic crisis facing the press forced them to limit content from 4-6 pages.

Lebanese do not view the newspaper a s a forum for dialogue rather strictly as a source of information. Unlike most Arabic-speaking countries and perhaps remnants of the civil war, a large percentage of newspaper content is devoted to local matters. There are six leading daily newspapers: Al-Nahar is a moderate and most widely-circulated, Al-Safir leans to the left, Al-Diyar, Al-Amal is a rightist paper originating from the Phalangist party, AL-Anwar is an Arab-nationalist paper, and L’Oreint-Le Jour is a French paper but readership is limited to the elite. Nevertheless, regardless of social background, newspapers are considered to be the most credible of the daily media sources while Lebanon as a whole is considered to be a leading Middle Eastern country in terms of quality of its newspapers.

Lebanon’s first radio was established in 1938 with Radio Levant, and was instituted by the French to combat Italian and German propaganda during WWII. After Lebanese independence, the station was renamed the Lebanese Broadcasting Station and renamed again in 1975 to Radio Lebanon. Regardless, the station remained under tight government control until the outbreak of the civil war and receives its budget from the Ministry of Information. Programs introduced one day and continue until an important official decides it needs to stop. Similarly programs may be interrupted to broadcast a song requested from a government official or report favorable news.

In response, several illegal stations emerged leading with the Voice of Lebanon in 1975. It quickly enjoyed popularity and soon joined by other illegal (sectarian-based) stations like Voice of Nation, representing Sunni Muslims; the Voice of the Mountain, representing the Druze; the voice of the People, supported by the communists; and Voice of Free Lebanon, supporting the Maronite Christians. Following the end of the war, the Taif agreement resolved the illegality of these radio stations by enforcing each station to pay 5% of its advertising revenues to the – at the time failing – Radio Lebanon’s budget in order to legalize them.

Today, surveys have indicated that radio as a media source is doing very well and while not as credible as newspapers, they rank higher as a source of information than television.

Two businessmen approached the government with the idea of launching television and in 1959, the first television broadcasts were aired – La Compagnie Libanaise de Te’le’vision (The Lebanese Television Company). A second channel was established three years later and programs ranged from Arabic, English, and French shows. More than half of the programming was imported from the U.S, France, and Egypt.

As the case for radio, the civil war caused a major blow to the two official TV stations as the channels fell under military control. Illegal stations similarly began to rise beginning with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) launched in 1985 by the Lebanese Forces militia. Since then, LBC has become a mode for the leading quality station attracting the most qualified produces of T.V programming in its staff. Other illegal stations followed suit like Al-Mashreq, owned by Lebanese ministers and focused on Arabic programming, and New Television or NTV operated by the Communist Party. There were two religious stations, the imported Middle East Television operated by American Pat Robertson and Al-Manar TV, controlled by Lebanese Shiite-party Hezbollah. A popular and more recent station is Future Television (FTV) owned by former Lebanese Prime Minister and billionaire Rafik Harriri and his family and broadcasts from Saida in the south.

The Press Law of 1948, revised in 1962, governs the press with certain guarantees of press freedom. However, the reality of the situation was made these laws more complicated as lack of financial self-sufficiency led to the vulnerability of media outlets to be controlled by interest groups including foreign embassies and Arab regimes.

Lebanon has 28 licensed local news agencies and ten regional and international news agencies including AP and AFP. The National News Agency is the official national agency founded in 1964.

While Lebanon is rich in quantity and quality of media, the mass media fails in playing an active role in national development as it’s emphasis continues to remain information rather than a platform for discussion. A careful analysis can trace the civil war to have affected the landscape of Lebanese media in many ways as its structure may have been shaped by the war more than any other institution. The impact of the war on Lebanese mass media should be studied further in order to understand the media’s reinstitutionalization on the countries diverse populace.