الاتحاد الكاثوليكي العالمي للصحافة- لبنان اوسيب – لبنان
Antélias, October 17th, 2002
The International Catholic Union of the Press (Union Catholique Internationale de Presse) in Lebanon (UCIP-Liban) considers that, at a time when Lebanon is hosting the Francophone Summit, many issues are still giving a bad image about the official positions in terms of public freedoms in Lebanon especially the freedom of expression and opinion. It also wishes that this summit will hold some positive thinking for us in order to revive the human and rights values incarnated by the francophony. Its communiqué includes the following points:
1- The issue of the closure of MTV is still a bleeding wound and a clear indication of the reduction space for the media freedoms in Lebanon. The whole media body awaits the position of the political and legal authorities hoping for a quick solution to this problem that gives back to the media the plurality they have lost and that is in the core of the issues defended by the francophony.
2- The images of the students uprising yesterday at the Saint-Joseph University and the repression by the security forces come back with the demands of the Lebanese youth that strives for a free democratic regime in which all the actors of the society are represented with all their cultural trends. These incidents take place after the security forces have undertaken during the last few days a confiscation of Lebanese flags from young people who were participating in an important event. The Lebanese youth is the future of the nation and the State has to deal with young people with dialogue and not with repression and ensure to them freedom of expression, and this is what President Jacques Chirac underlined in the interview he had with “L’Orient-Le Jour” in which he also considers that the officials should encourage the Lebanese young people to stay in their country and he calls for dialogue.
3- The communiqué issued by the “International Federation for Human Rights” on “the aggravation of the security and authoritarian regime in Lebanon” is a clear testimony to the bad image Lebanon has now with then international organizations. This requires from the State intensified efforts in order to restore the authenticity of Lebanon’s mission as a nation for dialogue of cultures and that has no sense without democracy, public and media freedoms, basic principles of the francophony.
