Introduction to the evening news 22-08-2012

Amid the ongoing turmoil in the north and the sporadic abductions, Lebanon's crumbling official authorities decided to rise to the level of public scandals with officials managing to point their fingers at what the consider to be the actual instigator of strife: media outlets, or at least the troublemakers among them.
        
However, the parties that are blaming the media for publishing unconfirmed information on the abductees’ safety are the same parties that once humiliated and dragged both the Lebanese state and the abductees’ relatives to the airport to wait for a private jet allegedly carrying the 11 Lebanese hostages. 

Those who are blaming the media today are losing sight of the fact that only two media outlets adopted the Lebanese abductees’ case. This was the least they could do at a time when the whole nation was dozing in a deep sleep.      

Those who want to provide a political cover to the National Media Council to punish media figures are the same ones who abstained from providing a political umbrella to end to civil strife.       

If it was unjust to hold one official responsible for this impotence in these exceptional circumstances, it would be shameful to keep silent about the approach used to manage the country’s affairs.         

The dialogue table that was born in the darkest conditions has become unable to gather officials,  and the sponsor  of such a dialogue is now haunted by his own nightmares, preferring to turn his attention to the electoral game at the most inconvenient of times.        

As for the Interior Ministry which is responsible for maintaining security, handed over its keys to “Hajjeh Umm Jihad” whose “apparatuses” accused one of its citizens of terrorism before taking him back home in a minister’s car. These same apparatuses are arresting officers, then releasing them only to arrest them again.        

No ladies and gentleman, the war did not start on the screen and if our channel owes anyone an apology, it would be the Lebanese and Syrian abductees who were forced to make statements live on TV. To them and only to them we bow…     

The question remains constant; will Lebanon start imposing restrictions on the media at a time when the region’s dictatorships are falling?


For the full LBCI report, watch the video above.