Arab Media Systems e book

This chapter assesses the state of the Lebanese media from its inception to the present day, taking stock of the legal and political framework and the challenges encountered as well as the prospects for media in Lebanon. [...] Even in the post-war era, the power-sharing system, the weakness of the state, and the strength of the political and sectarian groups that are often supported by external regional players have made governance in this precarious nation a challenge. [...] With the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and unlike the Arab press which embodied the slogan “no voice rises above the voice of the battle,” the diversity of views in Lebanon would remain extant. [...] For instance, the popular and now defunct As-Safir published daily Abdel Nasser quotes on the back page throughout the decades and labeled itself the “newspaper of Lebanon in the Arab world and the paper of the Arab World in Lebanon.” The polarization of the press, though a welcome manifestation of free expression and pluralism, reflected the increased divisions in the Lebanese polity and eventual. [...] The National Pact, an oral agreement among the independence leaders, has traditionally allotted the position of president of the republic to a Maronite Christian, the premiership to a Sunni Muslim, and the position of speaker of parliament to a Shi’a Muslim.