(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced concern about a rocket attack on the studios of Future TV (Al-Mustaqbal) during the night of 14 to 15 June 2003. The station is owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The station’s chief executive, Ali Jaber, and Information Minister Michel Samaha said the rocket caused serious damage but no […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced concern about a rocket attack on the studios of Future TV (Al-Mustaqbal) during the night of 14 to 15 June 2003. The station is owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The station’s chief executive, Ali Jaber, and Information Minister Michel Samaha said the rocket caused serious damage but no injuries.
The attack was “very worrying,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said, pointing out that there had been no violence of this kind against the news media since the end of the civil war in 1990. “Whatever the political difficulties in Lebanon and in the region, we call on all parties to respect the integrity of the media and not put the lives of news media workers in danger,” he added.
Ménard also called for a prompt investigation into the attack, which was not immediately claimed by any organisation. Radio Orient, a radio station also owned by the prime minister, is located in the same building as Future TV.
RSF has expressed concern about repeated press freedom violations in Lebanon in the past year. The country was once considered to be an oasis of press freedom in the Arab countries of the Middle East.
