A neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut destroyed by the first waves of Israeli bombings on Oct. 1, 2024. (Credit: Photo Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The Maharat Foundation, a Lebanese NGO that advocates for press freedom and journalists' rights, released a report Friday on World Press Freedom Day, warning of increasingly precarious conditions for media workers in Lebanon.
Titled "The Profile of Journalists in Lebanon – Who They Are, How They See Their Reality, and What They Say About Their Role," the report is based on surveys with freelance and employed journalists from various specialties, including editors and field correspondents working without health insurance or job security,
The findings underscore the fragility of journalists’ professional safety, a lack of institutional support for digital transformation and growing risks linked to misinformation. It describes journalism in Lebanon as an individual risk rather than a protected profession.
“By the end of 2023, Lebanese journalists found themselves at the heart of a war that directly targeted them, endangering their safety and resulting in the deaths of 11 professionals in the line of duty,” the report states. Several others were critically wounded by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, even before the conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli military intensified into near-total war.
“However, the war was not the only burden weighing on journalists,” Maharat’s executive director, Roula Mikhael, said in the statement. “Long-standing challenges persisted, including a deep economic and social crisis, as well as relentless efforts to fulfill a watchdog role in highly sensitive areas such as reforms, combating corruption and financial transparency. These challenges unfolded in a media environment saturated with misinformation and rumors, threatening reform efforts and complicating the pursuit of truth.”
"Moreover, the media sector in Lebanon — as elsewhere in the world — is undergoing rapid transformations dictated by technological developments and artificial intelligence. These changes are occurring in a challenging economic context that threatens the sustainability of media institutions and the job security of media workers, raising existential questions about the future of journalism and the role of journalists in the digital age," she added.
The statement concludes that this report "serves as a call to restore the value of press freedom, not as a celebratory slogan, but as a collective responsibility that requires protecting journalists' lives and professional dignity, as well as empowering their vital role in serving truth and democracy."
Maharat is funded by several United Nations agencies, the European Union, and organizations like the U.S. State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).