Lebanese lawmakers at the parliament building in downtown Beirut, January 9, 2025.
(Beirut) – Lebanon’s parliament should amend the recently-adopted media law to fully remove all provisions in Lebanese law that restrict the right to free expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Parliament passed the law on August 11, 2026, but a new draft law introduced by 10 members of parliament on October 5 offers amendments to the law that would resolve its key problematic provisions.
“Given the history of public officials and powerful individuals abusing Lebanon’s laws to clamp down on journalists, activists, and artists, parliament should act to prevent further abuse,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “No one should face abusive retaliation for peacefully expressing their views, and parliament has a chance to end these abuses right here and now.”
The media law, which parliament adopted after 16 years of deliberation, includes significant improvements. Some of the key advances include ending pretrial detention for free expression-related crimes committed online or through media-related means. The law establishes individuals’ right to create online media platforms or issue publications without prior state authorization and limits the military court’s jurisdiction over expression-related crimes committed online or through media-related means. It also decriminalizes defamation and insult in certain cases, transferring them to civil court jurisdiction.
The law also includes provisions that would promote media independence, including by prohibiting undue interference in journalists’ work, promoting media workers’ rights to unionize, protecting sources’ anonymity, and limiting the ability of security services to search and seize journalists’ electronic equipment and documents.
The adopted media law, however, includes a provision, article 104(b
… [more]
