Economy

Lebanon adopts a free market economy that is characterized by an established tradition of economic freedom and unbridled foreign investment. The Lebanese economy, even before the economic crisis in 2019, has also depended in a big part on services, mainly the banking and tourism sector, in addition to international business relations. Remittances from expatriates form a major source of incoming funds, one that surpasses exports, which greatly exposes the economy to regional crises and local political tensions. 

The Beginning of the Collapse 

Lebanon faced multiple crises in the last three years, the most important among them being the economic and financial crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, and the Beirut port blast. In 2019, the financial collapse, which came as a result of the mismanagement of massive spending, started to hit the country causing a rise in debt, and the international financial support for the country ceased to bail out the country because there were no real reforms by the ruling authorities. In the absence of such reforms and the inability of successive governments to find solutions for the crises that hit the country, half of the population in Lebanon lives in poverty.

The World Bank estimates that in 2020, the real GDP of Lebanon shrank by 20.3%, after shrinking by 6.7% in 2019. Lebanon’s GDP dropped from around USD 55 billion in 2018 to an estimated USD 33 billion in 2020, while the individual share of the GDP total dropped by around 40% in terms of USD value. The currency and financial situation is still very volatile; and with a system of multiple exchange rates in place, the average exchange rate calculated by the World Bank dropped by 129% in 2020. The impact on prices caused a rise in inflation, where it reached an average of 84.3% in 2020. The latest data from the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS) indicates that the inflation rate in Lebanon has remained at high levels. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which reflects changes in the prices of goods and services consumed by households, recorded an annual increase of 177.25% up to January 2024.

Lebanon suffers from a sharp and chronic economic recession. According to the Lebanese Economic Monitor report issued by the World Bank in 2021, this economic crisis is likely to be one of the top 10, and perhaps top 3, worst economic crises in the world since the mid-19th century. According to the same monitor, total debt reached 183% of the GDP in 2021, placing Lebanon in 4th place globally in debt to GDP ratio behind Japan, Sudan, and Greece.

In light of this economic collapse, print and audiovisual media are struggling to survive in Lebanon after many of them have shut down and the increasing difficulties and challenges facing the media corps during their work.

Scarce Advertising Revenue

It is worth noting that the Lebanese media sector is small despite it being marked by fragmentation and a congestion of media platforms, which number around 100 between audiovisual, print, and electronic outlets. A large part of them focuses on politics while the rest carry exclusively entertainment content and target around six million people living in the country. The sales and advertising returns are very limited, which make them insufficient to guarantee the sustainability of the plethora of media work in Lebanon. 

Media spending decreased significantly in the past two years due to the recent political and economic crises that hit the country in addition to the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact, worsened by the banks failing and the exchange rates rising. The drop in spending reached 95% compared with 2018. Investment in the various types of advertising in Lebanon was around USD 200 million in 2018, between traditional and online media, but it dropped to USD 130 million in 2019 due to the economic downfall in Lebanon, and dropped again to USD 10 million in 2020 and 2021 due to the financial and political crises, and the collapse of the national currency against the dollar.

Estimates indicate that the advertising market before 2018 used to range in size between USD 100 to 180 million per year. Half of the market activity is in the television sector with a cut going to the agencies and representative companies. This number has been considered too low for the sustainability of the media operators in Lebanon, in particular with seven television stations, which usually need between USD 10 and 15 million per year to continue operating.

Additionally, political instability, along with the continuous crises, form the defining characteristic of the Lebanese market marked by its volatility, which makes the stakeholders hesitant of investing large sums in advertising.

Additionally, political instability, along with the continuous crises, form the defining characteristic of the Lebanese market marked by its volatility, which makes the stakeholders hesitant of investing large sums in advertising. Thus, media platforms see the need to look for alternative sources of funding. Favorable media coverage in return for support seems necessary, and the politically motivated funding of news outlets and journalists appears to be a common and acceptable practice. Some go as far as justifying this practice due to the low salaries and journalists not receiving any benefits.

Political Funding of Media

Due to the sectarian nature of Lebanon and its media sector and how politicized it is, most media outlets tend to focus exclusively on the issues that concern a specific sectarian or political group instead of focusing on issues that concern the Lebanese community as a whole. Add to this the fact that the population of Lebanon is too small to begin with for the 110 licensed political publications and the large number of radio and televisions stations working in the sector to achieve financial self-sufficiency. Therefore, due to the absence of financial self-sufficiency and the low salaries of journalists and other staff in these companies, media professionals and institutions have no choice but to seek foreign or local political support in order to survive, and thus they submit to the interests tied to said funding sources.

The most common sources of funding are local and foreign entities and sectarian or political entities in exchange for editorial support. Foreign stakeholders and those in the business sector have often used the media to promote their agendas and affect internal and regional affairs. On the other hand, due to the drop in oil revenues and the changing political scene after the Arab spring (since 2011), and in light of the successive crises affecting the country, foreign investment has decreased, while the media in a number of Arab countries was expanded and strengthened attracting a large number of Lebanese journalists and media personalities.

Due to the dependence of the traditional media on political sources of funding, the media’s ability to objectively provide information and carry out investigative work becomes hindered, in order to avoid putting the funding sources in awkward situations. Therefore, most media platforms have specific political connections and are often funded by one of the political parties and thus express the party’s interests and opinions.

On the local level, the elections often created a main source of income for the Lebanese media. During the 2022 parliamentary elections, securing media appearances became the most important element of campaign spending. Media platforms, and in particular TV stations, adopted a price list according to the minutes of airtime and the program’s time slot. The prices started at USD 10,000 for the appearance of a candidate on air, while the evening primetime fee surpassed USD 20,000 and reached over USD 100,000 in the week leading up to election day.

According to a report by Maharat Foundation, the estimated sum paid by candidates to appear on Lebanese TV stations starting from March to May 2022 reached USD 7.5 million, averaging 1000 USD per minute, as the candidates were on air for 7,500 hours that month. 

The Economic Crisis and its Effect on the Workers in the Media Sector

The economic and financial crisis in Lebanon has cast its shadow on the workers in the Lebanese media sector, especially after the collapse of the Lebanese pound against the US dollar, which left a clear impact on the salaries of journalists and photographers who get paid in the national currency. This difficult situation pushed the journalists and photographers to work in multiple media platforms at once, or turn to teaching or other similar professions.  

On another hand, this situation affected the insurance companies and their services as well as the services provided by the National Social Security Fund to journalists. And thus, when facing injury many journalists cannot receive the needed medical intervention due to the exchange rate problem.

The media corps faced many challenges, mainly internet outages due to the electricity cuts crisis. Additionally the fuel crisis, particularly during the initial stages of the financial collapse in 2019-2021, left a clear impact on the work of the journalists and the media organizations, as the sharp shortages in diesel led media organizations to take rationing measures within the institutions to preserve their fuel reserves. 

The Ministry of Information running out of the fuel that feeds their electric generators led to the state radio station going off air, with both its Arabic and French language broadcasts, while the Sawt al-Shaab temporarily suspended its programming due to the fuel crisis and the inability of guests to reach the station. 

In light of sharp shortages in gasoline, and many gas stations shutting down, or having to queue for hours to fill up car tanks, many media organizations were pushed to ask their employees to work from home, and this also affected media coverage as it became difficult to reach locations of events due to the inability of securing fuel to operate the organizations’ and reporters’ vehicles.