LEBANON-MEDIA: The limits of independence

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - Samira Aissani

BEIRUT, Nov 16 1995 (IPS) - The diversity of titles on Lebanese news attests to the strength of the country’s media and an apparent independence from government control rare in the Arab world.

The Lebanese constitution guarantees freedom of expression and liberal publishing laws has seen burgeoning of the print media in a multi confessional society with a long history of privately owned newspapers.

The range is impressive: Lebanon boats 42 political dailies, 39 political and economic weeklies as well as 1,200 non-political magazines. Eight of the dailies have print runs of 120,000 and a loyal readership of around 35,000.

But what are the real boundaries of the independence of the Lebanese press represented by the country’s big three daily publications — An Nahar, As Safir and L’Orient Le Jour?

An Nahar’s executive chief editor Edmond Sabb, says the paper’s success “depends on its adherence to liberal market rules, the rules of profession, and its political commitment. This is translated into an economic independence guaranteed by law”.

Lebanon’s largest circulation daily with around 40,000 copies sold a day, An Nahar raises 10 million dollars worth of advertising a year and is controlled by the owner’s family who hold 63 percent of the shares, with the remainder in the hands of “charity associations,” says Sabb.

The rules of the market place can however mean that newspapers in Lebanon face a more subtle form of influence, from the advertisers and investors frequently linked to the politicians and religious groups that divide Lebanon.

“An Nahar is not a newspaper that makes money. This is a political and national institution that respects the values in which shareholders believe,” Sabb says. “The shareholders never fail to disburse their due 500,000 dollars at the end of every fiscal year in order to cover the newspaper’s losses”.

It is the owner and shareholders rather than the authorities which determine the newspaper’s political stance. “The owner has to draw the newspaper’s line before the shareholders.”

But, says Sabb: “From the outset, the law which ensures all newspapers independence has hidden the economic side from which newspapers suffer. We forget that these are publications, above all, for service of the audience, and need financial support. Facing the absence of any financing, newspapers have recourse to foreign financing, often not declared.

“Nowadays, the newspaper is a means of financial transaction and mainly on rental procedure.”

He vehemently denied claims made in the latest issue of the Paris based magazine Jeune Afrique that Prime Minister Rafic Hariri has acquired 40 percent of the newspaper.

L’Orient Le Jour is the only French language daily, part of the An Nahar group, sharing the same advertisers, printers and distribution companies, but its target audience is essentially the rich Christian social elite.

Owned by the current ministers of culture and the environment, it publishes around 150,000 issues a day and for the past two years the paper has made an annual net profit of around 800,000 dollars. A half page colour advert in L’Orient Le Jour sells for 40,000 dollars.

“The newspaper is independent with respect to the political forces in the country, and even to the general manager”, one source at the newspaper explained, “…I think that there isn’t any pressure on our responsible directors.

“This is due maybe because this is an exceptional case since we are the only francophone newspaper and it would be difficult to replace professional journalists with more than 30 years of experience”.

The third paper, As Safir, on the other hand is widely regarded as Muslim and leftist.

Journalist Ragheb Djaber says the media’s independence from political interference on the scope of the regulating laws, the paper’s economic clout, and the openness of the government.

He points out that most Lebanese politicians are businessmen who exert power over the papers through advertising, the major source of revenue.

“The same individuals, on the other hand have the information which will not be accessible to journalists unless they are friends with them, though they may not share the same convictions”.

“Freedom of expression can only be exercised to a particular ‘red line’ defined by the newspaper due to the national imperatives (of Lebanon’s religious factions).”

Sami Gadouh, director of the Institute of Journalism in Beirut, says newspapers here enjoy a self policed freedom, whose orientation is dictated by the political framework. “The Lebanese press, even if it is qualified as exceptional in the Arab world, has now mercenary limits in response to the sectarian interests”

— Samira Aissani is a journalist with the Algiers daily L’Opinion.