16 October 2010
BEIRUT: This week’s episode of primetime talk show “Kalam An-Nas” aired on LBC television sparked a wave of criticism accusing it of instigating sectarian feelings.
Information Minister Tarek Mitri phoned LBC’s chairman Pierre Daher after receiving several calls expressing surprise over the content of the episode.
Daher said he understood the reactions and voiced his readiness to shorten the airing period of the upcoming “Kalam An-Nas” episodes, tackling the same topic.
Also on Friday, the National Media Council announced it will closely examine the latest episode of “Kalam An-Nas” which is broadcast by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) and presented by journalist Marcel Ghanem.
Ghanem hosted a group of youth from the Alawite, Sunni, Shiite and Christian communities and asked questions such as: “Will you face Hizbullah if it decided to react using arms on the indictment?”
He also aired testimonies of victims of clashes between pro-government and opposition gunmen in May 2008.
Fears of Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon have mounted after Hizbullah said it expected members of its party to be indicted by a UN-backed tribunal probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The talk show also aired answers to similar questions by young men from adjacent areas inhabited by supporters of rival groups like Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh in the northern city of Tripoli.
The National Media Council (NMC) sent a letter to LBC regarding the matter.
The NMC said it “will closely examine the file and pursue the required contacts” in light of the wave of condemnations that followed the show.
According to the NMC statement, the decision came “due to the delicate general situation in the country and reports that the episode enhanced sectarian feelings” that all “responsible” officials in Lebanon were seeking to avoid.
The statement called for “committing to laws and regulations and behaving under a responsible national sense to strengthen national unity and avoid sectarian tensions.”
Meanwhile, the information minister discussed the “Kalam An-Nas” episode with NMC’s deputy head Ibrahim Awad at the former’s office.
Mitri and Awad stressed the right to the freedom of expression of the media, while adhering to laws and behaving in line with national responsibility by avoiding “incitement, generalizations and fright.”
Numerous media outlets on Friday questioned the motives behind raising the topic of a Sunni-Shiite conflict in the talk show while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was on a visit to Lebanon. – The Daily Star
Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
