The head of the Lebanon's National Audiovisual Media Council Tuesday urged Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh to help radio and TV stations in Lebanon obtain soft loans from commercial banks to enable these media outlets survive.
After meeting Salameh at the Central Bank, Abdel-Hadi Mahfouz said if radio and TV stations obtained soft loans then they would not be at the mercy of political money. Most news media in Lebanon are financed by political groups and foreign countries. But Salameh told Mahfouz Lebanese banks may not be too keen to provide loans to the news media in the country due to bad experiences they have had with some outlets.
