Overview

• Parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee reconvened on September 16 to continue examining the draft media law, which has been under committee discussion since July 29 following its May 27 submission.
• Fourteen Lebanese and international organizations, including Human Rights Watch, called for decriminalizing defamation, insult, blasphemy, and criticism of officials, ending pretrial detention for speech, and easing rules for launching media outlets.
• The May draft advanced key reforms by abolishing prison terms and pretrial detention for speech-related offenses and by repealing criminal defamation and insult provisions in the penal code and military judiciary law.
• MPs received proposed amendments on August 31 that would reinstate pretrial detention under vague grounds such as infringing on dignity or private life and bar outlets facing complaints from publishing about complainants during ongoing cases.
• The suggested changes would add burdensome reporting to regulators and signal a shift toward prior licensing for electronic media, as the information minister denies authoring the amendments and rights groups press for public deliberations.