Is Canceling Lara Fabian’s Concert an Act of Cultural Censorship?

— Staying away from Lebanon —

I just read the news that Lara Fabian, a belgian-Italian singer has decided to cancel her concert in Lebanon. She was apparently cowed by a boycott campaign that wanted to punish her for performing in Israel.

This is very unfortunate and detrimental to Lebanon’s reputation, but should it be given the “banned in Lebanon” treatment?

Lebanese civil rights defenders are treating this like an act of censorship. One online magazine is showing a photo of the singer with the word CANCELLED stamped in red on it, as if the concert was banned by some higher authority. But was it?

The truth is that Lara Fabian cancelled her concert of her own free will, as the result of an act of activism by unarmed civilians. We may not like this, we might find it very unsavory, but this is fair game in a democracy. This is very different than when an authority imposes a ban on a cultural work and uses the instruments of the state to enforce it. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s an important one.

Other artists like Armin Van Buuren were subject to the same treatment, but they decided to come nonetheless and had well attended concerts. Some might say that Fabian was afraid of Hezbollah and that she was worried for her safety, so that should count as a form of psychological duress. But that is testimony more to Fabian’s thin skin than to the tactics of the boycotters.

Update: Carol in the comments section has posted the letter which apparently caused Fabian to cancel her trip.