The University of Sciences and Arts in Lebanon “USAL” marked World Press Freedom Day, which the United Nations set on the third of May each year, with a solidarity gathering with the missing and abducted journalists in the Arab world, organized by the students of the university's media department, in which members of the university's administrative and teaching bodies took part.
The lecturer of the course “Managing Media Institutions” at the university, Farah Baalbaki, opened the gathering with the national anthem, then the head of the syndicate of audiovisual workers Randala Jabbour delivered the speech of the university's media department, in which she pointed to “the importance of freedom as a value inseparable from press work, and the firm relationship binding this value to the truth and to guaranteeing the right to differ”, focusing on “the importance of training media students in freedom before teaching them any subject”. She addressed them, saying: “Students, builders of Lebanon's future - be free. Be yourselves.. Be the free voice crying out in the wilderness of the illusory shackles they planted in the hope that we might submit.. Come out of the boxes of preconceived ideas and come out from behind the walls and the ramparts.”
She added: “Every year may the Lebanese press be freer within the bounds of responsibility, and outside the shackles of money, politics, ramparts and sectarianism and denominationalism.”
The student Douha Hamadi delivered the speech of the university's students, in which she affirmed that “the hardships of the press profession do not result from effort and fatigue but from the challenges besetting a journalist's personal and professional freedom”, expressing “her anxiety about what media students may face in their future profession”. She said: “In my name and in the name of my colleagues, the students of the media department at the University of Sciences and Arts in Lebanon (USAL), and given the violations of press freedom we witness in Lebanon and the infringement of the rights and freedoms of Lebanese journalists, we express our anxiety about what we may face in our future profession, and we appeal to the bodies concerned with media freedoms to support the freedom of the media and of journalists, and to remove all the ambiguities and anxieties about our freedom to carry out our mission.”
A group of Lebanese journalists also joined the university's students in their gathering with audio recordings. The “LBCI” correspondent Houda Chedid said: “Press freedom is not writing and speaking correctly; it is a dignified living”, pointing to the “living difficulties” a journalist suffers.
The “OTV” correspondent Nancy Saab said: “Freedom is a moral and national responsibility, so that freedom may remain the ink of our pens. We can begin from a solidarity gathering at USAL so as to complete the journey of defending press freedom.”
The “Al-Mayadeen” channel presenter Gracia Bitar pointed out that “the press is subjected to a new kind of tutelage: money, trivialization and the exclusion of women”.
The journalist Leila Chahwan of “Télé Liban” said: “The Lebanese press has always paid the tax of freedom, and the tax has always been martyrdom.”
For his part the journalist Rami Daher of “Sawt Al-Shaab” said: “World Press Freedom Day should be the object of attention in the Arab world, and the press should keep away from fanaticism and extremism.”
The “Al-Nour” radio correspondent Ilham Najem affirmed “that martyrdom is the most precious thing a journalist can offer in their professional journey”.
The writer at the “Al-Akhbar” newspaper Dawoud Rammal said: “We in Lebanon have our uniqueness in the press and in freedom; it is entrusted to us as the homeland is entrusted to us.”
The writer at “L'Orient-Le Jour” Scarlett Haddad said: “The new harassment to which a journalist is subjected by the successive governing regimes is what limits press freedom, and the newly emerging threat is the financial threat, because the majority of media institutions are owned by the holders of major interests in order to promote their interests at the expense of the freedom of the media and of knowledge. It is our duty to fortify the press in both its new and its old forms.”
The journalist at the “Al-Nahar” newspaper Ibrahim Bayram held “that press freedom is a cause that concerns us always and forever, not only as journalists but as Lebanese defenders of the word - for the defence of the word is a constant and sustained matter”.
All the speakers saluted the media students at USAL for “their initiative and their concern to mark World Press Freedom Day”, while the gathering closed with free expression by the students and the participants in the occasion, and a commemorative photograph.
