Media law: Freedom is all Lebanon has left. We must not sacrifice it

It slipped by almost unnoticed, buried in a batch of "good news." On Tuesday, Lebanon's Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, joining the ranks of nations that have chosen to uphold the sanctity of human life. The same session also modernized the country's media law, introducing several notable advances, including the creation of an independent media regulatory authority and greater legal recognition for news websites.Yet one provision casts a shadow over these achievements: Article 104 of the media law opens the door to imprisoning journalists, putting an end to a Lebanese exception in the Middle East.Lebanon was once imagined as an island of freedom in an unforgiving Middle East, a bastion of liberalism and coexistence, flanked to the east by authoritarian socialism and to the south by a state built on ethnic...