(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister Michel El-Murr, RSF protested the seizure of the 29 June 2000 issue of the French news weekly “L’Express”. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked the minister “to do everything in his power to enable foreign newspapers to be sold freely in the country.” The organisation also pointed out […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister Michel El-Murr, RSF protested the seizure of the 29 June 2000 issue of the French news weekly “L’Express”. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked the minister “to do everything in his power to enable foreign newspapers to be sold freely in the country.” The organisation also pointed out that “on 12 June 2000, the General Security Department seized twelve foreign publications – including ‘L’Express’ – which contained articles highly critical of the late president Hafez el-Assad” (see IFEX alert of 16 June 2000).
According to information collected by RSF, the 29 June issue of the French weekly “L’Express” was not on sale at Lebanese news-stands. An article published in that issue mentioned the censorship of “a book by Joseph Khoury, ‘The Lebanese Disorder’, which is considered hostile towards the Syrian ‘godfather'”. Since its publication, the book has not been available in the country’s bookstores, although there is no official ban.
