Lebanon’s cassation court attorney general filed a lawsuit in Beirut on Saturday against the London-based Arabic daily al-Sharq al-Awsat. This came after the newspaper published on December 31, 2001 a story on an apparent assassination attempt against the Lebanese president Emile Lahud while he was on holiday at a friend's yacht in Monte Carlo.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said Friday that “no prior censorship” should be practiced on local newspapers, after the authorities muzzled Asharq Al-Awsat. While Aridi reiterated his earlier statement that the daily had committed a “big mistake” in this incident, he said that “we can in no way accept that ‘prior censorship’ be practiced on a Lebanese publication.
“The matter of censorship has no meaning anymore, with satellites and the internet,” the minister was quoted in the Lebanese Star Daily newspaper. “I hope that this ends immediately, and let the newspaper assume its responsibility in the matter,” he said, referring to the Surete Generale’s stepping in to review the newspaper’s contents before allowing its distribution.
Aridi spoke after receiving the newspaper’s Beirut office head, Ibrahim Awad, and the head of the Press Federation, Mohammed Baalbaki. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
