Beyond the Disrespectful Lebanese Media Content…

By Mohammad Youssef

The media in Lebanon suffers from multifaceted compound problems that have exacerbated recently to reach unprecedented heights of irresponsibility and immorality. This is posing a real threat to the credibility of the field itself and to the whole Lebanese social matrix and political environment. Will the concerned officials take enough measures to regulate or control the issue or would they be reckless and indifferent to leave the snowball grow to reach unwanted consequences?

Some media outlets, mainly TV channels, have recurrently aired variety of programs with a degrading content that targets a particular Lebanese category by insulting its sanctities and sacred issues.

Such behavior reflects one of two things: either the channel and those who supervise it are ignorant and do not understand or realize the sensitivity of their programs, or they know exactly what they are doing and are orchestrating a campaign to add fuel to fire and sow the seeds of discord to create a schism and a rift among the Lebanese.

If the first probability is taken into consideration, then those running those channels lack the credibility and awareness to handle such matters and they need to be taught or guided to handle their job efficiently.

If the second one is considered, then they should be held responsible for their irresponsible and illegal actions as they would be creating a problem that would incite hatred and provoke reactions that could stir the situation and destabilize the entire country.

There are times when we cannot and should not make hasty judgements or immature evaluations. Moral responsibility should not be compromised to the freedom of speech. Freedom has never been absolute and it can never be. Freedom should be oriented. It should be a responsible one, knowledgeable and responsible that does not exceed the limits or cause any harm to any one or any group. Moral responsibility is very much needed. Wisdom, morality and maturity should be the guiding lines those working in the media domain to be able to distinguish things well.

Things can never be left as they are. Those who supervise the Lebanese TV channels have failed to live up to their moral and professional duties and responsibilities. Measures should be taken to guarantee such violations will not happen again.

Lebanon is suffering enough due to its multilayered crisis. The country is handling crucial financial and economic issues that it is not capable of dealing with any more problems.

Supervision by the concerned official parties should be activated to its full capacity. Wisdom and valid judgments should prevail; otherwise we would add more failure to our destitute and sensitive plight. Let us hope!