Lebanon

Journalists, lawyers and other Human Rights Defenders in Lebanon working in the context of the war report severe attacks on those exercising their freedom of expression; these include killings, physical attacks, pressures to censor their work, and online intimidation.

In this report, Maharat examines the dynamics of the media war taking place in Lebanon surrounding Israel’s military offensive against Hezbollah. It underscores the importance each conflicting party assigns to media as a tool for psychological warfare.

This report aims to highlight the increasing violations faced by journalists and the impact of these assaults on their freedom and their ability to practice their profession under difficult and complex circumstances.

The report examines the use of digital targeting by security forces and its far-reaching offline consequences – including arbitrary detention and torture – in five countries: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia.

Maharat Foundation and Madanyat Association work with UN Women to monitor television and social media1 concerning violence against women in politics in the period prior to the 2022 parliamentary elections. This summary provides a quick overview of the findings during the months of February and March.

Ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections, Maharat Foundation examines Lebanon’s TV coverage of electoral campaigns, highlighting violations, and the marginalisation of women from the media space.

The study focuses on 7 topics:

• The media’s concerns regarding the parliamentary elections
• The demands of the October 17 Movement and television coverage
• Monitoring women’s representations in the media and their political participation
• Monitoring the priorities of traditional and alternative media
• The media’s interest in corruption issues
• The union and student elections and coverage by traditional and alternative media
• New influencers and media figures through social platforms

Assessing the Legal Framework concerning device seizures in Lebanon.

The October 17 uprising in Lebanon – fueled by rampant corruption and the country’s worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990 – has sparked a newfound collective consciousness  where the rights and identities of marginalized groups are part and parcel of the protests.

In this study, incidents related freedom of opinion and expression are documented in three categories: oppression campaigns against freedom of opinion and expression; freedom of expression is the weapon of the revolution; and, media institutions amidst the revolution

Hackers defaced the website of the Lebanese Medical Association for Sexual Health shortly after the organization launched a pro-LGBTI campaign

The lack of a comprehensive legal framework for privacy rights and data protection in Lebanon has led to the adoption of illegal mass surveillance programs and to the violation of individual and collective privacy without repercussions

This “LGBT Censorship in Lebanon” report tackles the impact of censorship, unequal treatment and the arbitrariness of legislation on the daily lives of the Lebanese LGBT Community and more generally all LGBT-related content in Lebanon.

In this report we take a closer look on how a traditionally safe space for free speech and expression was transformed into a space of unregulated arbitrary legal practices. We also examine the effect that the ever-changing political objectives, affiliations and temporal objectives all have on the frequency and severity of online political censorship cases.

This report provides an overview of the state of online privacy and mass digital surveillance in Lebanon.

Do you know that you don’t really have the proclaimed “Lebanese Freedom of Speech” that you were told you had?

Government officials and other powerful political actors brought numerous defamation cases against journalists during 2015.

Cybercrimes Bureau continues “to harass activists and journalists for their social media activity”

Ranked 118th in annual global media freedom report

Ranked 112th in annual global media freedom report

Ranked 106th in annual press freedom index

Expression of gender and sexual identity met with torture by Security Forces

Ranked 112th in annual global media freedom report

“Lebanon has a long tradition of press freedom, though nearly all media outlets have ties to political groups”

Local authorities cooperate with Syrian government in tracking down dissident journalists and bloggers fleeing to Lebanon

Tortured whistleblower being investigated for “publishing information harmful to the reputation of the Lebanese Military”