Free Speech in Lebanon Today Has a Price Tag On It
Freedom of speech is a human right recognized in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is a right that every human being is entitled to practice without being silenced.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the political system in Lebanon, this freedom often gets violated, sometimes behind the scenes and other times even out in public.
This violation can appear in many faces and colors and isn't necessarily restricted to the use of force.
Any action, be it direct or indirect, verbal or physical, that prevents an individual or a group of individuals from freely expressing their opinions regarding any idea or person is considered a violation of human rights.
View on Instagram
"Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The term "freedom of expression" is sometimes used synonymously but includes any act of seeking, receiving, and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used." ~Wikipedia
For the past 40 days, many Lebanese have been sleeping in their tents on the streets of sit-ins and waking up the next morning to resume their pacific protests against a system that has deprived them of many of their basic rights.
View on Instagram
These people have latched on to the one right that has not yet been (fully) taken away from them, and are using what's left of their sense of citizenship to try and reclaim what belongs to them.
The beauty of free speech is its sacredness in the worldwide community; people around the world place a high value on this right and feel personal offense and involvement when it is violated anywhere around the globe, and often do take action to support the repressed people.
View on Instagram
This puts immense pressure on governments that witness massive demonstrations like the ones Lebanon is living today and prevents them from resorting to repression and force to counter the protests, for fear of the international reaction.
However, this does not mean that international pressure is enough to ensure the complete freedom for protesters.
As we are seeing every now and then, the Lebanese authority and its supporters are still infringing the protesters' right to peacefully oppose it. That is a serious problem that must be addressed.
Just this past week, we've seen multiple examples of these infringements take place in many forms. At around 2 PM on Sunday, November 17 for instance, Al-Jadeed news reporters got bombarded with hateful phone calls and text messages that included shameful and vulgar phrases and attacks.
The six reporters were getting threats of physical violence, rape, and death from a huge amount of phone numbers belonging to people they don't know.
The disturbing messages and calls were being sent from numbers with foreign country codes in addition to the local ones.
View on Instagram
The timing and identicality of the attacks are obvious proof that the numbers were massively distributed and the attacks encouraged and instructed.
During their November 18 live appearance on Al-Jadeed to discuss the issue, four of the victims of these attacks showed a specimen of copypasta containing their names and phone numbers, which was widely shared via social media groups (mostly Whatsapp group chats) promoting abusive actions.
View on Instagram
Even while they were on live TV, their phones rang nonstop. The reporters publicly displayed some of the Whatsapp threats they were getting.
They added that some people called them to apologize and let them know that they got their numbers from a copypasta, then consoled them and gave them emotional support.
The channel was also recently blocked from Television by some cable distributors who individually took the decision to boycott the channel in some Lebanese areas, including Beirut's southern suburbs, Nabatiyeh, and Tyre.
View on Instagram
Those terrible acts are how some opposers of Al-Jadeed decided to express their disagreement with the channel's policy.
Whether or not the channel is biased and no matter how it handles the news, this form of feedback is not acceptable; it is disgraceful, it's obscene, it's absurd, and whoever uses it lacks basic human decency and deserves to be punished for it.
If you oppose a TV news channel or any media for that matter, I got three words for you: Don't Watch It .
View on X/Twitter
It's as simple as that; it's civil, it preserves their freedom of the press and your freedom of speech, both of which the Lebanese constitution asserts, and doesn't cause anyone any harm.