Lebanon: Albeit The Catastrophic Blast, Lebanese Politicians Are Using Defamation Laws To Silence Women Journalists And Political Dissidents

Location: Lebanon, Beirut
Date: August 25, 2020

Available in: 🇸🇦  عربي

Nabih Berry, Speaker of the Lebanese parliament and Bassil Jubran, president of the free patriot movement are suing Journalist Dima Sadek for allegations of spreading false news under defamation law. CFWIJ condemns these practices against women journalists and calls upon Lebanese politicians to set their priorities straight and rise to the moment.

On August 19, 2020, TV anchor Dima Sadek, expressed her opinion about Bierut blast on her TV show “By people’s name”. Dima like many other Lebanese was furious and wanted the government to present factual evidence about the explosion and to hold officials accountable.

She provided some information circulated on social media accusing Nabih Berry and Jubran Basil of inaction towards the explosives packages. Some of these posts were even claiming that Nabih Berry is the importer of this package.

Later, Dima apologized for presenting these posts that lacked evidence. The apology would normally settle the issue but this didn’t satisfy Lebanese politicians.

Mr. Nabih Berry and Mr. Jubran Bassil filed a libel suit against Dima based on defamation laws. They accused her of spreading false news. Mr. Bassil Lawyer is requesting a 110 million Lebanese Lira (approximately 7000 $) as remuneration.

According to Dima “Since the explosion on August 4, there are two cases against me and none against any politicians who are responsible for this catastrophic explosion”.

Dima started her journalism career and worked as Co-chief editor in Al-Safir newspaper. Since 2007 she has worked in several TV channels; OTV,LBC and MTV. She covers a wide spectrum of Lebanese society issues and since 2018 she has had a political TV show called “ Lawien Waslien”.

Defamation laws are widely utilized in Lebanon to silence and target journalists. In July 2020 a free speech coalition was formed to combat these laws. Current media law still allows imprisonment for publishing. Journalists are subjected to military trials for publishing pieces about the military. Over 100 journalists were questioned according to defamation laws since the beginning of the year. There’s a new media law in the house but it still includes imprisonment for publishing.

CFWIJ has created an in focus webpage about Beirut’s blast documenting the horrific impact of the explosion on women journalists in Lebanon. Journalists’ homes were destroyed, they were badly injured and dozens of them pursued their coverage in the middle of the remains of the explosion. While a whole country is aching because of the explosion, Lebanese politicians' priorities are to sue journalists.

CFWIJ condemns the lawsuits against women journalist and TV anchor Dima Sadek and calls upon Lebanese politicians to focus on remedying the catastrophic scars of the blast instead of targeting and suing journalists. The Lebanese parliament needs to review and amend the proposed new media law to revoke imprisonment for publishing and approve a new refined bill complied with freedom of speech and press international conventions and treaties as soon as possible.

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The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world, and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.

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