For decades, Lebanese journalism has been applauded as the freest, most outspoken and most literate in the heavily censored Arab world. Alas, no more. Beirut's best-read daily has just shed more than 50 staff and LBC, one of the country's best-known television stations, has just fired three of its most prominent presenters. The Lebanese media are being hit – like the rest of the world – by the internet and falling advertising revenues. But this is Lebanon, where politics is always involved. Is something rotten in the state of the Lebanese press?
The problem is part economic,part stuctural.As Fisk continues
The problem is not so much the politics of Lebanon but the feudal state of the press. You cannot start a newspaper in Beirut – you have to buy an existing title from someone else. This costs money. So the rich own newspapers. Not much different, you may say, from the rest of the world. But the system in Lebanon is archaic; there are families in Beirut who own newspapers but don't publish them – they are still waiting for a buyer.
1 comment:
Lebanese Media are relatively free and outspoken; however they have always lacked objectivity and in-depth reporting. Most media outlets are controlled by political parties/sects/religions which make them behave as a political propaganda machine. Further more, instead of zooming on the important issues, like sectarianism and the economy, the media keeps discussing the same old Lebanese political problems that don’t get the Lebanese anywhere.
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