The United States Ambassador appears on Lebanese television and denounces the ban on the judicial media | Lebanon News

Beirut, Lebanon – Several Lebanese media outlets aired interviews with US Ambassador Dorothy Shea on Sunday, ignoring a ruling by a judge that prohibited local and foreign media from making their statements after criticizing Iran-backed Hezbollah in an interview last week.

Urgent Affairs Judge Mohammad Mazeh, based in the southern city of Tire, a stronghold of Hezbollah and its main ally, the Amal Movement, said Saturday that media channels in violation of the decision could be shut down for a year and fined $ 200,000.

He said that Shea had interfered in Lebanese internal affairs and had violated the Vienna Convention that grants special privileges and immunity to diplomats. His words “offended many Lebanese”, pitted them against each other and “constitute pouring oil into the fire of [sectarian] fight, “he said.

In an interview on Saudi television Al Hadath last week, Shea said: “Hezbollah is destabilizing the country and jeopardizing Lebanon’s economic recovery.”

He also said that a recent speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was “riddled with classical deviations, attributing everything to the United States when we are Lebanon’s largest donor.”

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah recently said the United States was trying to starve Lebanon. [File: Aziz Taher/Reuters]

Nasrallah alleged on June 16 that a United States conspiracy to prevent dollars from reaching Lebanon was behind a shortage of dollars that has led the national currency to depreciate rapidly.

He said the United States was trying to starve Lebanon, but that Hezbollah would not let that happen and that “we will kill them.”

Hezbollah’s growing influence in Lebanon and the region as a powerful group has strained Lebanon’s ties to historical allies in the West and especially among the Arab Gulf nations that used to supply the lion’s share of tourists to the country and gave it thousands of millions in aid.

Lebanon’s deep economic and financial crisis is rooted in decades of mismanagement and corruption, while a lack of political will to reform has stalled relations with donor countries. But concern and anger over Hezbollah’s outsized role are cause for growing concern.

Germany became the last western nation to designate Hezbollah as a “terrorist” group last month, after the United Kingdom did so earlier this year, taking the lead from the United States, which has increased sanctions against those who help and incite Hezbollah from the President of the United States, Donald Trump. assumed office.

‘Attempt to silence’

Several Lebanese media channels ignored Mazeh’s ruling and aired interviews with Shea on Sunday in which he bowed to criticism of Hezbollah.

“The attempt to silence the Lebanese media in a country that is really known for having free media is really pathetic, it does not belong to Lebanon. That kind of action belongs to a country like Iran,” he said in an interview with MTV News. channel.

Contacted by Al Jazeera, Mazeh said the ruling will not take effect until Tuesday and that it will be up to private citizens to file complaints of violations. “I have done my part, it is not my job to go after every violation of this ruling,” he said.

He also said he could reverse the decision if Shea promises not to make statements that “pit the Lebanese against each other.”

Mazeh denied that the ruling was the result of pressure from Hezbollah. “I swear to God no one from Hezbollah called me on this issue at all, and in the case, someone called that I would do nothing unless I was convinced of such a decision myself.”

Reaction

Mazeh’s decision has faced backlash from opposition parties and even Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s Hezbollah-backed government information minister Manale Abdelsamad, who said he violated media freedom and was “unacceptable”.

But Abdelsamad said Saturday that he was not speaking on behalf of the government and that no official had apologized to Shea because the government respects the judiciary.

“Unfortunately I think the information minister does not have all the information,” Shea replied in the MTV interview on Sunday. “A high-ranking official well located in the Lebanese government … apologized and expressed that this ruling did not have an adequate position and that the government would take the necessary measures to reverse it.”

There are no signs of that yet. Mazeh denied reports that he had been referred for investigation and said he would resign if that decision were made.

And Mazeh has powerful sponsors. Hezbollah has fully supported its decision.

Parliament member Hasan Fadlallah, a prominent member of the group’s parliamentary bloc, said Shea’s statements constituted a “blatant attack on Lebanon’s sovereignty and national dignity” and a “miserable attempt to cover up the conspiratorial role of [the US] administration on the livelihood of the Lebanese people and their national currency. “

Fadlallah asked the foreign minister to summon Shea for his comments.

Following Fadlallah’s statement, state media reported that Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti called the ambassador “for recent statements” and would meet with her on Monday.

State media recently reported that a judge had filed charges against anti-Hezbollah preacher Sayyed Ali al-Amin.[File: Nabil Mounzer/EPA]

Repression of Hezbollah critics

Shea’s ban on coverage is the most prominent episode in a series of recent cases against those critics of the government and the president, both backed by Hezbollah, and Hezbollah itself.

“To say that there is a worrying trend would be very little. I would say that freedom of expression is in a critical and dangerous situation and even at a vital risk in Lebanon,” Ayman Mhanna, executive director of the Samir Kassir Foundation, a freedom of the watchdog media, he told Al Jazeera.

“The problem is the politicization of justice, the fact that judges follow direct orders or the political whims of parties in trying to please the political actors responsible for appointing, appointing or promoting judges,” he said.

“Now that Hezbollah is the most powerful player to rule in favor of Hezbollah,” he said.

On June 22, the Lebanese Military Court accused online activist Kinda el-Khatib of collaborating with Israel and allegedly visiting occupied territories, which are crimes in Lebanon, a country that is technically still at war with Israel.

El-Khatib harshly criticizes Hezbollah, and his family maintains his innocence on all charges.

The following day, state media reported that a judge had brought charges against anti-Hezbollah preacher Sayyed Ali al-Amin for allegedly meeting with Israeli officials in Bahrain.

After a widespread reaction, the state media issued a correction and said the charges were related to civil peace in the country, rather than collaborating with Israel.

And on June 25, General Security questioned former Hezbollah fighter-turned-anti-Hezbollah activist Rabih Tlais for reasons he is still unknown.

“There was an atmosphere of fabricating a file against me on collaboration charges [with Israel]”he said to Al Jazeera.

Tlais said he had decided to stop writing for A New Lebanon, a news website run by anti-Hezbollah preacher Abbas al-Jawhari, due to fears that “they are trying to reach Jawhari through me, which is I won’t let it happen. ” .

Jawhari ran against Hezbollah in the 2018 parliamentary election and was arrested on the eve of the election on drug charges that he said were fabricated.

“It is very unfortunate,” said Tlais. “Welcome to the Republic of Iran.”