Journalists Face Increasing Threats in Lebanon

(MENAFN) Experts and legal advocates sounded the alarm Tuesday over a deepening crisis facing media workers in Lebanon, warning that deadly attacks, pervasive surveillance, and a near-total absence of accountability have transformed the country into the most dangerous place on earth for journalists this year.

The warnings came during a hybrid briefing in Geneva, where speakers — including representatives from Human Rights Watch and an array of legal and media organizations — painted a grim picture of systematic violence against the press.

Elsy Moufarrej, president of the Union of Journalists in Lebanon, framed the danger in stark terms, stressing that attacks on journalists are not random but reflect a "deliberate pattern" designed to silence coverage.

Legal advocates echoed that assessment with documentation to back it up. "These attacks very clear; our documentation shows that they are deliberate and direct attacks against journalists," said Ghida Frangieh, a lawyer at Legal Agenda in Beirut.

Participants cited a string of cases in which journalists were killed in recent years — some while reporting in the field, others in their own homes — and cautioned that such incidents may constitute war crimes. Beyond physical violence, speakers flagged the expanding use of surveillance technology, including drones and potentially artificial intelligence, to monitor and track journalists' movements.

"In Lebanon, we are constantly under surveillance," Frangieh said, warning that such tools raise grave questions about how media workers are identified and subsequently targeted.

Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanese researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Division at Human Rights Watch, cited a press release issued in May by Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which formally designated Lebanon as the deadliest country for media workers in 2026 — a designation that dozens of killings since 2023 have grimly underpinned.

Kaiss described the situation as alarming, arguing that the pattern persists in large part because nations with the leverage to act have chosen not to. He directed particular criticism at European and Western countries that have continued supplying Israel with military aid, assistance, and arms transit — support that, he argued, could have been suspended. He also singled out the EU, which he said could have moved to suspend the trade pillar of its association agreement with Israel.

Speakers across the briefing converged on a common demand: independent investigations, meaningful legal action, and structural reforms to end the impunity that has allowed violence against journalists to go unchecked.

For those still working on the ground, experts warned, the calculus has become unconscionable — journalists now face an impossible choice between visibly identifying themselves for legal protection or concealing their identity to avoid becoming a target.

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