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The Parliamentary Information Committee did not want to take a clear stance regarding the sentencing of journalist Dima Sadek to one year of imprisonment by a criminal court, following a libel suit brought against her by FPM leader Gebran Bassil in 2020.

Chaired by Hezbollah MP Ibrahim Moussaoui, the committee discussed the case on Wednesday, which apparently sparked a heated debate between those who defend press freedom and consider it unacceptable for journalists to be subjected to criminal prosecution when they are supposed to appear before the Press court in the event of a libel complaint, and those who dispute Sadek’s positions.

Following the meeting, Moussaoui confined his statement to generalities, pleading during a press conference for “freedom of expression and of the media, but a responsible freedom, far removed from hate speech or racism.”

At no point did the MP refer directly to Sadek’s one-year prison sentence, but he did promise to follow up on the case and summon the relevant ministers to do so.

An “arbitrary” judicial decision

For his part, MP Marwan Hamade strongly condemned the judicial decision handed down to Sadek, calling it “arbitrary.” As a journalist “who has already suffered and fought against this type of injustice,” he considered that Sadek had legitimately denounced the violence suffered by two demonstrators from Tripoli on the road to Jounieh.

The latter had been assaulted by bodyguards of the former Aounist deputy Ziad Aswad, who had made racist remarks about them. Sadek had rightly stigmatized this racism.

A specialized court to protect freedoms

From a judicial point of view, MP Ghayath Yazbeck reiterated the need for journalists to be brought before the press court, denouncing the fact that Sadek had been “stripped of all her civil rights and sentenced to one year of imprisonment and payment of 120 million Lebanese pounds” to the FPM.

As a member of the Information and Communication Committee, Yazbeck condemned the weakness of the latter’s stance on the attack on Sadek. He then pledged “to continue the fight to protect the media and freedoms in Lebanon.”