Media Pluralism

43% of the media outlets covered by the MOM count at least a member of the following 12 families in their ownership or board – or both (Tueni, Hariri, Aoun, Mikati, Fares, Murr, Salam, Khayat, Daher-Saad, Khazen, Edde and Pharaon – see below). More than 1 out of 3 is also directly owned by one of them.

Most of the surveyed media are politically affiliated. Currently, there are no legal provisions preventing Members of Parliament or their family members from holdings shares in media organizations. Owners are also not obliged to declare their political affiliations or any conflict of interests on the forms submitted to the Commercial Register. In the absence of such legislation, political ownership of the media appears to be a technically ‘legal’ pattern within Lebanon’s media landscape.

After nearly a decade of preparation, Lebanon’s Parliament ratified an Access to Information law in January 2017. But accessing data is still difficult because of the absence of formal procedures to do so, and because the information would be provided by the Commercial Register, which already provides an interface to access information.

Respecting the law in Lebanon seems to be the exception. From the driving code to the Constitution, the culture of law enforcement has been historically weak and the laws pertaining to the media sector are no exception.
In the course of the research the MOM team found that no less than 43 media owners are politicians who sit or have served in government and in parliament. This makes accountability a myth, as they become judge and party at the same time.