This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org.
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Authoritarian, corrupt, and more of the same. Lebanon has a new government

By:   []

Date: 2021-09

The words of Lebanon's new minister of information, George Kordahi, a TV presenter and admirer of both Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad and Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, do not bode well for Lebanon's journalists.

In his first public statement since his appointment to the head of the ministry that oversees the country’s media, he said he “wished that the media in Lebanon would refrain from hosting guests who portray the country as heading to collapse”.

The new minister has plans for the Lebanese media sector. And judging by his previous sexist and racist statements, these will not be about tackling harassment or discrimination. His plan is to have a committee to supervise what is broadcast and published in the media.

He will not be censoring the media, he explained, but he expects the media to censor itself.

The words of the man best known as the host of the Arabic version of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ don’t come as a surprise, though they do come as a warning. Lebanon has not only been in financial free fall, but has witnessed a severe decline in freedom of expression in the past two years.

Journalists and activists have suffered from judicial and extrajudicial repression, while protesters have been routinely subjected to violence from state agents, and militias connected to ruling parties.

But Kordahi is only one of a questionable set of new faces in Lebanon’s new government. The challenge facing them is formidable – but at first look, it seems doubtful that they will bring any real solutions.

A new prime minister

Lebanon's new government has been formed more than a year after the resignation of prime minister Hassan Diab. In the intervening period, the state has spent $10.4bn without any clear plan. Diab’s resignation came shortly after the huge explosion in Beirut on 4 August 2020, which destroyed large parts of the capital and took the lives of at least 218 people, wounding 7,000, with at least 150 acquiring a physical disability. The explosion “caused untold psychological harm” and damaged 77,000 apartments, displacing more than 300,000 people, according to Human Rights Watch.

Since then, the political establishment responsible for the failure, neglect, and corruption that caused the detonation of tonnes of ammonium nitrate, stored in a decrepit port warehouse next to fireworks in the middle of a residential area, has been actively blocking an investigation into the crime. Recently, an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project investigation found that a chemical-trading network controlled by Ukrainians – hidden behind a veil of proxies and shell firms, some of which are in the UK – was allegedly behind the shipment.

In Lebanon, families of those killed during the explosion were repeatedly attacked by security forces when demanding the truth and justice for their loved ones.
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