Summoning of LBCI correspondent in Bekaa draws solidarity

BEIRUT — After an LBCI correspondent was summoned by authorities in the Bekaa on Monday for covering an attempted escape from the Jub Jennin prison, journalists, activists, and lawyers expressed their solidarity with him on Monday and Tuesday, criticizing the measure, our correspondent in the Bekaa reported.

The prisoner reportedly swallowed three lighters earlier this month in order to be transferred to a hospital and to escape from there. However, his attempt failed, and he underwent surgery on Sept. 6 to remove the lighters before being returned to prison.

The journalist, Mohammad Ali Ahmad, was notified of the summons by the Jub Jennin police station on Sept. 16. According to our correspondent, the purpose of his summons was to ask him about the source of his information. On Wednesday, Ahmad told our correspondent that he did not attend the interrogation that was scheduled for Tuesday at 11 am. Instead, lawyer Wajdi Faour, sent by the Union of Journalists in Lebanon, headed to the station on his behalf, where he conveyed the union’s objection to the manner of the summons and pointed out that the competent authority to handle the case is the Publications Court, in accordance with Lebanese law.

Contacted by L'Orient Today, a security source was not immediately available to comment.

"I prepared the report with complete professionalism, and no one has the right to pursue me legally because of it. We are under the law, not above it ... Our mission is to convey the truth to the public, and we will not back down from this role," Ahmad told L'Orient Today.

On Tuesday, at the time when the interrogation was supposed to take place, journalists, mokhtars and lawyers gathered at the police station in solidarity with Ahmad. The protesters emphasized that attempts to pressure journalists into revealing their sources constitute a blatant violation of the law, noting that Lebanese law guarantees journalists the right not to disclose their sources.

Later on Tuesday, the Progressive Socialist Party’s Media Commission condemned the summoning of the journalist and requested "all security bodies to respect the legal principles that regulate the relationship between the media and the various authorities." Moreover, the Union of Journalists in Lebanon wrote on X: "The Union adds its voice to that of the media professionals who held a sit-in today on the steps of the Jub Jennin Government Serail ... The union calls for respect of the applicable laws." A day earlier, the Bekaa Journalists’ Gathering strongly condemned the summoning and considered this measure to be “a dangerous precedent that infringes on the freedom of journalistic work."

During last year's war between Hezbollah and Israel, Ahmad covered the conflict in the Baalbeck region.

Reporting contributed by our correspondent in the Bekaa Sarah Abdallah