(Credit: AFP / Illustration photo)
BEIRUT — Several media outlets, archdioceses and schools said Saturday that they will not abide by the decision to postpone by one month the transition to daylight savings time.
Some of the media outlets said in a statement that their action is "to protest the decision of the [caretaker] prime minister."
Meanwhile, local network operators confirmed that Lebanon's mobile phone users will have to adjust their settings, disabling the "automatic time" function, to avoid automatic time change today at midnight.
MTV announced Saturday that it "will not abide by the decision to postpone the adjustment of daylight savings time and will [switch] at midnight tonight, in objection to the decision issued by the [caretaker] prime minister."
The decision to postpone daylight savings time in Lebanon took many by surprise and was adopted almost unilaterally, after an almost surreal discussion between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and House Speaker Nabih Berri.
The Grand Serail announced Thursday that the change to daylight savings time, scheduled for midnight March 25/26, has been postponed until the end of April.
'Not a desert island'
The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), also announced in a statement Saturday that it "will continue to abide by global time and switch its clocks forward by one hour at midnight tonight, according to the usual daylight savings time."
In a statement, the channel explained that "all countries in the world have the right to make decisions about time, but this should not be done in the space of a few hours."
"Lebanon is not a desert island and not conforming to global time zones will impact our work and prevent us from moving forward," the statement added. "We will not accept to be isolated."
OTV also announced on its website that it "will not abide by the decisions of Najib Mikati, and confirm[ed] that it will continue to work in accordance with the global time, and will advance its clock by an hour at midnight."
LBCI news anchor Bassam Abou Zeid took to Twitter Saturday to criticize the decision, saying that people should "confront the decision to manipulate daylight saving time."
"We should all not abide by what the 'authority' has decided, and we should apply daylight savings time, starting at midnight tonight," he added. "The decision by [Speaker] Berri and [Prime Minister] Mikati to keep [standard] time for a month will not change the technologies of what will happen. Cell phones will change the time at midnight, and we have to correct it manually."
It was unclear whether digital appliances and international systems would automatically adjust to daylight savings time regardless of the decision, but several mobile phone users in Lebanon reported receiving a text message from their providers, Touch and Alfa, Saturday advising that they manually adjust their phones' clock settings "to avoid changing the time on the phone screen."
An Alfa spokeswoman confirmed to L'Orient Today that phone holders will have to either manually readjust the time at midnight Saturday or turn off the "automatic date and time" switch in their settings.
'In rejection of the improvisation'
No official reason was provided for the decision but a Mikati adviser — and a video of the Thursday meeting between the prime minister and house speaker — confirmed that it is related to the month of Ramadan, during which practicing Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.
The Greek Catholic Archdiocese of Zahle, Bekaa, and the Maronite Archdiocese of Antelias have also indicated on Saturday that they will switch to daylight saving time for their mass, prayer and celebration schedules, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The media office of the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkirki also announced that it will push the clock one hour forward at midnight tonight, according to the NNA.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese daily An-Nahar — which broadcast news programs online — announced they will not abide by the government decision.
News outlets Nidaa al-Watan and al-Nashra announced similar decisions. "In rejection of the randomness and improvisation that takes place at the level of the Lebanese state administration by some officials, which was recently represented in dealing lightly with the decision to move to daylight saving time, without considering the negative repercussions that would result from that, al-Nashra decided to adhere to work according to global time, that is, advance the clock by one hour, starting from 12 o'clock after midnight today," the statement read on the outlet's website.
The decision to postpone the onset of daylight savings time in Lebanon also sparked criticism and mockery on social media.
At the school level, the Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour instructed, in a Facebook post, "parents, teachers and students to push the time forward tonight (March 25/26), in accordance with international practice and Lebanese laws that has been in force for decades."