The Closing Workshop of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections
“Towards an Independent Media Ethics Council”

Under the patronage of the minister of State for Administrative Reform, HEM Ibrahim Shamseddine, and in the presence of the minister of Information, HEM Tarek Mitri, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) held the closing workshop of its project undertaken within Afkar II program, funded by EU and managed by OMSAR. The workshop was held at the “Holiday Inn-Dunes” Hotel in Verdun, and was put under the title “Towards an Independent Media Ethics Council”.

The workshop was attended by the adviser of the minister of information, Mr. André Kassas, the director of the National Information Agency, Ms. Laure Sleiman Saab, representatives of civil society associations and NGOs, and media persons from different media institutions.

After the national anthem, the coordinator of the project, Yara Nassar, said that the project undertaken by LADE strove from the very beginning to organize workshops with media persons tackling the coverage of the electoral process and to put a code of ethics or a code of conduct, they should comply with.

As for the general director of LADE, Dr.Ziad Abdel Samad, he said: “The law pertaining to the legislative election that was recently adopted does not ensure a fair representation. It does not contain most of the reform principles that we claimed”. He considered that the majority-based electoral system that was adopted and the distribution of the constituencies do not allow holding democratic elections. He added that not establishing an independent electoral body, disregarding some important administrative and technical measures, and keeping the Lebanese expatriates on the sidelines, as well as the refusal to lowering the voting age and the marginalization of women’s participation will make it impossible to hold free and fair elections. However, he noted that the new law gives the possibility to monitor the elections and the electoral campaigns, which will contribute to disclosing the violations and abuses of power that might take place and are actually already taking place. He also announced about the comprehensive national plan for the monitoring of the elections that was newly drafted, clarifying that the association “has started to cooperate with the Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform (CCER), which is a national campaign aiming at raising awareness about the new law and about the rights of the voters, as provided by the law, as well as their obligations to express their position and opinion in order to contribute to determine the national choices”.

The minister Mitri talked about the relation between the freedom, the diversity and the independence of the media persons in doing their work. He noted that “freedom does not mean condemning to excess the rival and being provocative, stressing that there is a close relation between the safeguard of freedom and the consolidation of honesty, which will become more important if the media and the media persons abide by the code of ethics on which they willingly agree.

As for the minister Shamseddine, he stressed the importance for the society to become stronger than the State and to be there when the latter falls short of its duty”. He underlined that “Lebanon needs a civil not a secular State, for the civil State safeguards the rights of the different sectarian groups and diversity and consolidates the concept of citizenship”. He also underscored the importance for the media to respect the laws, refusing to consider the media as being the Fourth Estate in the light of the loss of the three legislative, executive and judiciary powers. He said in this regard, “if there were free and fair judicial authorities, there would have been a Fourth Estate; but even the judicial authorities have become a prisoner”.

He distinguished between the media and the media persons, considering that the media compel the media persons to comply with their ideas and follow their tendencies, which is considered to be a misuse of the law and media freedom.