Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
Jointly published by the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Middle East Forum
  Vol. 4   No. 10 Table of Contents
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October 2002 


Objectives of the MTV Closure and Ensuing Crackdown
by Gary C. Gambill

Gabriel Murr

On the afternoon of September 4, red-bereted Lebanese security forces stormed into the offices of Murr Television (MTV) in the northern suburbs of Beirut and closed the station (along with its affiliate, Mount Lebanon Radio), enforcing a court order charging that its broadcasts violated a ban on political propaganda and harmed relations with Syria.

This unprecedented assault on public freedom sparked an unprecedented uproar across the Lebanese sectarian and political spectrum and elicited rare public rebukes from the American and French embassies. The magnitude of these repercussions could have been easily foreseen, however, raising the question of why the closure was undertaken in the first place.

Although the precise calculations of Lebanon's security establishment cannot be augured precisely, the decision clearly reflected more than the desire to mute opposition to the Syrian occupation. Much like the August 2001 arrest sweep against anti-Syrian dissidents, the move was intended not just to shift the balance of power between government and opposition, but also to alter the balance of power within the regime.

Background

One of the most arresting ironies of Lebanon's Second Republic is that the relative degree of freedom enjoyed by its broadcast media in comparison to other Arab countries stems in part from the fact that virtually all private television stations are owned by corrupt politicians. If there is a silver lining to the aggressive pursuit of personal wealth by Lebanese political elites, it is that the politicians who own the media are more interested in maximizing advertising revenue than influencing the public. As a result, television stations compete vigorously to offer programming that reflects the concerns and differing views of a sophisticated public.

The principle restriction on press freedom is a vague provision in the 1991 Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation, and Coordination between Syria and Lebanon which prohibits the publication of information deemed harmful to the security of either state. In practice, this statute has been used to heavily restrict news reporting that is considered to reflect negatively on Syria, demean the Lebanese security forces, or incite sectarian tensions. Until the closure of MTV, however, the government enforced restrictions on the media by intimidating and prosecuting individual journalists and media executives, not by sanctioning the stations themselves.

Although MTV's news reporting and political talk shows had run afoul of the authorities on many occasions since the late 1990s, the station's closure had more to do with the political activities of its owner, Gabriel Murr, who has aligned himself with the mainstream Christian opposition in recent years. In June, Murr won a parliamentary by-election in June against the daughter of his brother and staunchly pro-Syrian political rival, former interior minister Michel Murr, whose son, Elias, inherited his father's cabinet post in 2000. Elias Murr is also the son-in-law of President Emile Lahoud, another loyal ally of Damascus.

Gabriel Murr's victory was a severe blow to his brother's formidable political machine and MTV's coverage of the by-election clearly contributed to his success (though it did not actually violate article 68 of the Parliamentary Election Law, which bans political advertisements). To make matters worse, Murr happened to be a close business partner of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, a fierce political rival of the Lebanese president. Hariri and his allies in the Lebanese cabinet blocked efforts by the Lahoud-Murr camp to undertake legal action against MTV during the campaign. Since the Lebanese judiciary, headed by Prosecutor-General Adnan Addoum, is under the firm control of the Syrians, Hariri could be overruled only with permission from Damascus.

The Crackdown

Not surprisingly, the closure was unanimously condemned by Lebanese professional associations and civil society groups. The Lebanese Press Federation, which represents the owners of some 80 media outlets, and the Journalists Union , comprised of 1,200 reporters and other print media employees, condemned the measure as "unjust and out of place" in a statement that was published on the front page of all twelve Lebanese daily newspapers the next day. Even the region-wide Arab Journalists Association condemned the closure. The Beirut Bar Association declared that the closure "threatens the democratic system" in Lebanon and staged a one-day strike, forcing 150 court sessions to be adjourned on September 6. The head of the Lebanese Businessmen Association, Armand Fares, warned that the closure threatened the country's economic recovery.

The reaction of the Lebanese Christian opposition was also not surprising. All ten MPs affiliated with the Qornet Shehwan Gathering announced that they would boycott parliament for a month to protest the closure. Michel Aoun, the exiled head of the Free National Current, declared the closure to be "the final stage of Syrianizing Lebanon's government system."

Hariri, who clearly did not have advance knowledge of the raid, told streams of visitors seeking his intervention that he could not interfere with a judicial decision, while his ally, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, initially declined to comment on the closure. Their allies in the cabinet were not so restrained. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi condemned the closure as an "unacceptable, horrendous encroachment to muzzle Lebanon's free media" and declared his intention to boycott a cabinet session the following day "in protest against the unforgivable shutdown of a media outfit." Minister for the Displaced Marwan Hamade, warning of an "invisible shadow government running state affairs" and "an invisible section of a parallel judiciary" that acts in unison with it,1 also joined the boycott, as did Administrative Reform Minister Fouad al-Saad. Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh, Minister of State Talal Arslan, Energy and Water Minister Muhammad Abdulhamid Beydoun also criticized the decision.

Sunni and Shi'ite political leaders outside of Hariri's orbit, including two former prime ministers and a former parliament speaker, also condemned the measure. The spiritual leader of the Shi'ite Islamist Hezbollah movement, Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, declared that the closure will "not be accepted by the people." The vice-president of the Higher Shi'ite Council, Abdel Amir Qabalan said that freedom in Lebanon was facing a "crisis."

Perhaps the most surprising reaction, however, came from the American embassy, which is not in the habit of criticizing abuses by the Lebanese government. "The United States government is deeply troubled by the government of Lebanon's decision to close MTV," said a statement released by the embassy, adding that the closure "called into question Lebanon's commitment to freedom of the press." A spokesman for the French foreign ministry called the closure a "worrisome move."

The American reprimand did little to rein in Lahoud once he had received a green light from the Syrians. Several hundred demonstrators who marched through the central district of Beirut on September 7 were confronted by security forces firing water cannons, sparking clashes which left two protestors hospitalized and many others lightly injured.

Adnan Addoum

After the Lebanese Communist Party LCP) announced its intention to hold a "victory for public freedoms" march to the central district of Beirut, the Syrian-backed mufti of Tripoli, Taha Sabounji (whose fidelity toward Damascus is so strong that real Islamic fundamentalists tried to assassinate him in 1994), announced that his followers would stage a rally in support of the closure at the exact same time and place. This provided Interior Minister Elias Murr with an excuse to issue a decree late on September 8 banning all demonstrations "due to reports about possible confrontations." A similar tactic had been used in April 2001, when a broad opposition coalition announced plans to hold a mass demonstration commemorating the anniversary of the start of the 1975-1990 civil war. Days prior the demonstration, Syrian intelligence recruited dozens of people to masquerade as Islamic fundamentalists and march through the streets of Beirut brandishing knives and sticks, after which the regime announced a ban on demonstrations to prevent "civil strife."

Public reaction to the crackdown may have given the head of the Publications Court, Labib Zouein, second thoughts about the closing. The court had been scheduled to hear an appeal by MTV lawyers on September 16, but Prosecutor-General Adnan Addoum announced on September 12 that Zouein had been promoted to a new post on the Court of Cassation, leaving the Publications Court without a presiding judge. The appointment of a replacement was delayed until early October.

Another judicial bombshell came on September 17, when the Constitutional Council announced its intention to annull Gabriel Murr's electoral victory in the June by-election on the grounds that he had not submitted a declaration of his personal assets within the three-month deadline stipulated by Lebanese law. Although he had compiled a financial portfolio, it was in his office at MTV headquarters at the time of the closure and security forces repeatedly barred him from entering the premises to retrieve it. When he finally retrieved it, the Constitutional Council declared that it could not be accepted after the deadline.

Over the next two weeks, the authorities neither carried out the annullment, nor indicated that his electoral victory would stand - the judiciary often employs this form of indefinite legal limbo in order to hold the prospect of punishment over the heads of those it wishes to intimidate. In this case, it became clear that the authorities were giving Murr a choice - give up his seat in parliament and stick to broadcasting, or give up his television station and stick to politics.

Meanwhile, Addoum broadened the judicial offensive to other opposition figures. On September 23, he announced that he had asked Lebanese security agencies to investigate "unsettling" comments by opposition figures supporting the Syria Accountability Act, a draft bill under consideration in the US congress that proposes sanctions against Syria if it does not withdraw from Lebanon. A circular sent two days later by Addoum to military and civilian intelligence agencies called on them to gather information on Lebanese who have taken part in "activities hostile to state security . . . and its financial status or provoked inter-confessional dissent" or whose actions might harm Lebanon's "relations with brother Arab states" (code for Syria). According to a security source cited by Al-Nahar, Addoum was given instructions to build a legal case against Aoun and to summon an MP who attended the controversial International Maronite Congress in Los Angeles in June, presumably Fares Soueid.2 The next day, Al-Nahar editor Gibran Tueni condemned "Marshal Addoum's republic," invoking a subtle comparison to the leader of Vichy France.3

On September 26, Addoum renewed a government investigation into accusations that former President Amine Gemayel had embezzled millions of dollars from the purchase of Puma helicopters by the Defense Ministry during his tenure as president in the 1980s. Rumors had previously circulated that Addoum would revive the investigation in September 2001, apparently to dissuade Gemayel from opposing the ascension of Karim Pakradouni as head of the Phalange (Kata'ib) Party, an institution founded by Gemayel's father. In early October, Addoum also activated a libel suit previously filed by Pakradouni against Gemayel for publicly characterizing his replacement of Mounir al-Hajj as head of the Phalange Party as "prostitution replacing prostitution."

The Real Target of the Closure

Rafiq Hariri

The closure of MTV and ensuing crackdown came at a critical economic juncture, as Hariri was lobbying the international community for billions of dollars in soft loans to reduce the country's staggering interest payments on the national debt. Indeed, it was expected that French President Jacque Chirac set a specific date for the much-awaited "Paris II" conference of donor countries and international financial institutions designed to relieve Lebanon's debt burden. It probably did not help that, during Hariri's trip to Paris on September 15, a group of Lebanese expatriates broke into the outdoor grounds of the Lebanese embassy and held a candlelight vigil to protest the crackdown. In early October, the European Union released a belated statement declaring that the closure of MTV could harm Lebanon's reputation as a country that protects freedom of the press.

Informed sources in Lebanon believe that the crackdown was designed to weaken Hariri, who controls economic policy. If the Paris II conference, upon which Hariri has staked the country's hopes for an economic recovery, fails to convene before the end of the year, Lahoud and the Syrian-backed security establishment will have an excuse to press for Hariri's ouster. Saudi Prince Al-Walid bin Talal, who is half Lebanese, has expressed interest in the job and has the backing of the Lahoud camp.

Two weeks after the closure, Hariri said in an interview that leading political figures should not be permitted to own television networks.4 In light of the fact that Hariri himself is the largest shareholder in the Future Television station and had never before hinted that there was anything untoward about this, the comment did not appear to make sense - that is, until the media began reporting judicial leaks to the effect that MTV might be permitted to open under new ownership. On September 24, Information Minister Aridi then dropped a bombshell, stating that Prince Al-Walid had expressed interest in buying the station.

Since the number of television broadcasting licenses is fixed, it is quite plausible that one of the reasons MTV had been closed was to prepare the way for the prince's ascent to power in Lebanon. The day after Aridi's statement, Al-Nahar reported that Al-Walid had begun buying up a small number of MTV shares under a pseudonym, Walid al-Solh (Al-Solh is the name of his maternal grandfather, Lebanon's first post-independence prime minister), suggesting that the prince may have played a role in persuading Lahoud to close the station.

Western governments are closely following events in Lebanon. "There's no doubt about it - there is a strategic interest today for Syria to tighten its grip on Lebanon more than ever, through Lebanon's security and legal apparatus," said a Western diplomat on condition of anonymity late last month.5 Apart from their early reaction to the closure of MTV, however, American and European officials have not commented publicly on the power play taking place in Lebanon.

Notes

  1 Al-Nahar (Beirut), 5 September 2002.
  2 Al-Nahar (Beirut), 25 September 2002.
  3 Al-Nahar (Beirut), 26 September 2002.
  4 Al-Nahar (Beirut), 22 September 2002.
  5 Agence France Presse, 27 September 2002.


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