Monthly Archives: September 2010

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❊ Worst Time For Creating A New Media Law

The entire Journalism and media landscape is changing. We are in the middle of a disruptive structural transformation. Newspapers are going under, the internet is becoming more and more dominant and news is becoming flatter and more social.

We don’t even know how people will be consuming news 5 years from now. This is why I become nervous when I see plans like that of Minsiter of Information Tarek Mitri to create a new “comprehensive” media law in Lebanon.

The details are still sketchy. Here’s how Minister Mitri sees the task ahead:

“We are in need of a wide-embracing law that combines [separated laws], secures consistency, modernizes what requires modernization and fills the legislative holes”

The law could be bad if it creates a monstruos bureaucracy that attempts to preserve the status quo, empower the entrenched special interests and protect the current stakeholders from any disruptive change. Newspapers will start asking for subsidies from the tax payer because they believe they’re performing a “public service”.

But it could also be good. It could consolidate all the red-tape into a law with a light touch, a law that follows general guiding principles without being too specific and overbearing. It could also create a reasonable safety net for all the journalists that will most certainly be the victims of the upcoming disruption to make the transition smoother.

I trust Mr. Mitri is an enlightened man and I’m sure he’ll make the right decision. And yet, it is important for us as bloggers, blog readers and general internet news consumers to let our voice be heard. If you have suggestions for the upcoming law, send Mr. Mitri your suggestions to qanun@ministryinfo.gov.lb .

I will be emailing him a copy of this post after I publish it.

Update: Minister Mitri has responded to the post. Here’s his email:

Thank you for the feedback. I am pleased to know that you are inviting fellow bloggers to make their voice heard.

On another note, you should know that the English translation of the paragraph you quote is miserable. “Jami’ Mani’” in Arabic means wide-embracing or comprehensive and not “binding and deterrent”.

In addition, the hypothesis that the new law could create a monstruous bureaucracy that attempts to preserve the status quo is absolutely alien to what I said yesterday. My working hypothesis is just the opposite.

Regards,

Tarek Mitri

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.

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They Want To Burn The Iranian Flag In Tripoli

If you think all the Ahmadinejad action will take place in the south, think again:

Acts of violence against Iranian interests in north Lebanon’s city of Tripoli were being prepared to coincide with a visit to the country by Iranian leader Mahmouad Ahmadinejad, security reports revealed Thursday.[The] violence will include burning of the Iranian flag and pictures of Ahmadinejad upon his arrival in Lebanon mid-October.

Here’s a thought: If CNN had a choice between covering cheering crowds in the south and covering angry crowds in the North burning Ahmadinejad dolls, what would it choose?

The Iranian embassy in Beirut announced, with a straight face,  that Ahmadinejad’s visit “Aims to Strengthen Lebanese Unity, Consensus on Resistance”.

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The Israelis Are Threatening Dubai's Police Chief

Apparently, they’re upset because he uncovered their top secret operation to kill Hamas’ Almab7u7 in Dubai:

Israel issued death threats to Dubai’s police chief for implicating the Jewish state in the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh in the emirate, Lt General Dahi Khalfan Tamim said in comments published on Thursday.

Have you noticed that most of the recent crime intrigue stories in the region have someone whose last name is “Tamim” involved?

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What Is It That P.M. Hariri Is Not Telling Us?

When you’re surrounded by treacherous, backstabbing neighbors and countrymen who are out to get you, where do you get the confidence and cold blood to say things like:

[The STL is an] international institution that is present on its own and is not governed by any political power balances and more importantly there is no possibility whatsoever to give up on the blood of martyr Premier Rafik Hariri. This will be achieved through patience, firmness and holding to [our principles] without being dragged to any issue that would drive Lebanon into a cycle of instability

As Qifa Nabki puts it:

Hizbullah has made it clear that it is not going to meet Hariri halfway, and so one wonders: why is he bothering to make these half-hearted concessions and send mixed signals about the STL? Is he still hoping that the “Syrian-Saudi agreement” will pressure Hizbullah to find some kind of face-saving solution for everyone involved?

Hezbollah is clearly mobilizing its supporters for some future street action and is waging a vicious media campaign to discredit the STL. All we have seen from Mr. Hariri so far are calls for calm and for steadfastness. But where’s the beef? Where are the action plans? The contingency preparations? We have no clue.

The theory is that Mr. Hariri and the Syrians have sinister backroom plans for Hezbollah when push comes to shove and the STL makes its official indictment. But can we really trust the Syrians?

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Geography Doesn't Matter

The distances politicians will travel to get elected:

Australian Works and Roads Minister David Borger asked Lebanese expatriates to vote for him, during a tour of the northern Lebanon district of Minyeh on Wednesday. Borger visited villages in the region, the hometown of several Australians of Lebanese origin, and met with local figures. He passed on the regards of Lebanese expatriates in Australia, hoping the latter would vote for him in his country’s coming elections

Those northern villages near Minyeh are so remote even Lebanese politicians don’t visit them.

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Arab Brotherhood

Turned out it wasn’t the evil Zionists after all:

Mysterious jamming of TV broadcasts of the summer’s World Cup by the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera has been traced to Jordan, which appears to have retaliated angrily after the collapse of a deal that would have allowed football fans there free access to the matches.

So much for the theory that this was a scheme to sabotage Qatar’s bid to host the world cup..

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Better Than Fiction

Stuxnet, the virus that targeted Iran’s industrial infrastructure has Israeli biblical references in it:

Deep inside the computer worm that some specialists suspect is aimed at slowing Iran’s race for a nuclear weapon lies what could be a fleeting reference to the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them.

Who needs the Da-Vinci Code when you have such real life intrigue..

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Is Gemmayze Doomed?

Could Gemmayze suffer the same demise as Monot? Gino Raidy writes an excellent piece for BeirutNightLife.com where he explores the tensions between the residents, the politicians and the club goers.

Here’s an excerpt about how the club owners bribe their neighbors:

One pub manager admitted to beirutnightlife.com, on condition of anonymity, that his establishment provides air conditioning, electricity and soundproofing, free of charge to the residents of the building where his pub is located. This pub stays open well into the night, disobeying the set curfew with no consequence, since none of the neighbors file a complaint considering the sweet deal they are getting.

Read the whole thing.