The ‘Journalists for Freedom’ association denounced on Monday “the violations suffered by the media in terms of physical attacks, threats, and character assassination attempts”, warning that “Lebanon is heading towards extremely dangerous paths.”
In a press conference at Le Gabriel Hotel, the association’s president, Assaad Bechara, announced that the meeting “aims to preserve freedoms that concern all the Lebanese,” pointing out that “freedoms have been violated while journalists and opinion leaders were attacked in the streets of Beirut.”
He asked “why the attackers of journalist Rami Naim were not arrested even though their identities were revealed,” indicating that “a similar incident took place with him two days ago near the Al Azarieh building in Downtown Beirut, where several people threatened him and prevented him from filming.”
“We are a united family in defending freedoms,” Beshara stressed.
Journalist Tony Boulos indicated that “there is a gang that terrorizes and threatens media professionals,” declaring that “they received some direct and indirect threatening messages.”
Finally, journalist Youssef Diab denied the accusations leveled against him, asking to return “to his full speech during the interview and not cutting out parts of it.”
Diab had previously stated that Hezbollah controls the roads leading to the airport, consequently dominating the airport, which makes it a target for Israeli shelling in case of escalation. As a result, he was subjected to a campaign of intimidation and threats by Hezbollah’s electronic army.
