Journalism Under Attack in Lebanon

since twenty eleven. Justin, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks for having me so since you are, you know, based in bed with them, so intimately knowledgeable of what's been going on, I thought we could start by just kind of laying out what conditions are like in Lebanon right now.

bit more now without an attack on Baitoo. Basically, we had that day April eighth, which is being called locally Black Wednesday, where around the country I think the numbers are now over three hundred and fifty people were killed, and many of those were in beitoots in areas that

came without warning. You know, there is this kind of dynamic now where the Israeli military will at times announce warnings for certain areas, though many attacks come with no warning, and they brought down buildings without warning in some cases as well in central Bayroot. So the conditions right now are you know, relatively, I guess we can call it quiet here. Of course, that's vastly different in the south, where there was an intensification, particularly yesterday, there wasn't really

any cessation of hostilities. We can talk about how the minutes leading up to April sixteen, when the ceasefire went into effect, you know, throughout the country in Lebanon, the Israelis were attacking around the country, not but in other parts of the country, particularly in the south and in the city of Sorde bombs. You know, I was down there the other day and people were talking about what time the Israelis dropped their last bomb, whether it was twelve on the dot or eleven fifty nine pm or

eleven fifty seven pm. And so these are the conditions that essentially journalists media workers are forced to live with on a daily basis.

way that media sesss risk in this country. Since then a number of other journalists have also been killed. So in that sense, there still is a fear that targeting much like in Gaza is a thing that happens.

journalist who was wounded in that initial attack. Since then, most of the attacks have targeted Lebanese journalists, and particularly Lebanese journalists working with outlets who have some sort of we can call it line that supports or is differential to hezbala I. Of course, this is not an excuse, right, They're still journalists, They're still working in the media, regardless of what their political affiliation is. These are people who

are there to assess information. Recently, in this latest intensification, there have been more killings of journalists, of course, and these are typically journalists who are working on the front

lines and in the south. You know, we can't know what's in the minds of the Israeli military, but based on my conversations with media professionals and media watchdogs in the recent years, I wrote a piece for Al Jazeera back in twenty twenty four I believe it was about the killing of journalists in Gaza, and you know, people at outlets like Reporters Without Borders were telling me that at that point we're talking, you know, a year and

a half ago, it was already systematic. There was a systematic means of trying to control the narrative through the killing of journalists. And this is a big thing for these groups that are you know, work really hard to share only things that they've backed up with data. They're not bombastic spokespeople who have some sort of critical lean you can say, these are people who really have to on organizations that really have to be careful with the

language that they pick and choose. So I thought that was like a really interesting framing. So what they had told me at the time, and I think this is inevitably still true if you subscribe to this idea, is that the goal was to prevent the information from getting out from the front lines, to stop people from knowing

what was happening. And this has been clear as lately we've seen journalists targeted and you know, this isn't a case whereby journalists were killed, and I'm speaking specifically in Lebanon. This also happened in Gaza, but specifically in Lebanon. In the last few weeks, we've seen cases where there were double tap strikes on journalists, that had targeted journalists, and then the Israeli military came out, particularly with an incident that happened I think just a little over a month

ago now. They came out and photoshopped journalists from the TV station almonad in has Bla Fatigues and claimed that he was part of this elite that are one forces.

conditions that journalists are working with. Unfortunately, Lebanon is not signatory to the ICC or the ICJ, and so these cases though there's been pressure by media watchdogs and other bodies to get Lebanon to sign up to join the ICC and ICJ so that they can put forward cases against Israel for specifically the targeting of journalists, as well as many other actions Israelis have taken in Lebanon, particularly South Lebanon, over the last two and a half years.

These are essentially the conditions that Lebanese journalists are working under where their lives are at risk. I might point out one other incident where a journalist from RT was reporting on a bridge in South Lebanon. It was one of the last bridges to not yet have been bombed that would connect South Lebanon to the rest of the country. He was reporting when it was caught on video that

a strike had happened. I think there are legitimate criticisms about, you know, this journalist's conduct in terms of placing himself.

after October seven. You may remember at the time there was this whole kind of debate between analysts and pundits and talking heads and what have you. You know, Israel wouldn't have or do that, they would never attack a hospital. And then months later, here we are and every hospital in Gaza. You know, at one point multiple hospitals in

Gaza were completely unoperational. Attacks that happened around hospitals at hospitals claiming hospitals were militant centers or centers that were hosting militants and all these other sort of things.

Then two journalists from the outlet Al Mayodine were killed, and then since then we've had others from Maodine, from Monar, et cetera that have been killed by the Israelis. So you see kind of a pattern that, Okay, we can get away with killing these journalists that are ostensibly working with outlets who have some sort of affiliation or lean towards the Hezbala narrative. That's also the case for Alahabart

with the newspaper that Ama Khalil worked with. She was killed in a really horrific targeted strike just a few days ago where her and.

and she died. There's no way to frame this other than that Israel attacked her and then prevented her from receiving the treatment that she needed to be able to continue to live and I'm always somebody who I didn't know personally, so I can't speak to her character in my sense, but from the reports, people reported her as a person that was incredibly generous with her time, was

incredibly helpful, was very kind to animals. She was somebody who was in the South for years and years, was often in the South, was constantly in the South, was always on the front lines, felt it was for duty to report from the front lines as much as possible. You know, these are the people that the Israelis have targeted until now. Without maybe going too much into, you know, an attempt to draw some sort of pattern, I think that what seems clear is that those people are of targets.

But we have to ask are the Israelis maybe trying to expand that a bit? Because this is the first journalist they've killed from Allahabad, right, if they've killed Manar before, they've gone onto Myodine, or they've killed Myodine and gone and you know Monard and Myodine in one way gone on. Talk about are they widening the scope? Are they challenging

more people? Are more people at risk? And so I think what this does is inevitably now journalists will think twice about going south, They'll think twice about going to the front lines. Security advisors will put more caution into allowing their journalists to go south. People will take less risks obviously, people who will see themselves who work as targets, maybe with outlets that the Israel are openly an opposition to,

might take different decisions, you know. So I think this is where we end up at basically, after such killings and such actions.

psychological effect that takes place here right. There has been a phenomenon of different municipalities around Lebanon receiving phone calls from Israeli officials or Israeli military officials warning them of hosting displaced people. You know, this has been reported and outlets, including in the New York Times and others, so essentially a psychological effect has begun to take hold with that

as well. There have been a number of calls that are essentially fake calls, so you know, for example, a few weeks ago, a neighbor of mine, or a neighboring building just a couple streets over, reportedly received a warning, a threatening call threatening them that there might be attack on their building. Now, that attack never manifested and never developed, at least not at that precise building, though there have been other attacks within a walking distance of my house

in the last few weeks. That being said, you know, that has a psychological effect, because many people will not take the risk, they'll leave. Other times, you'll find cases where people will get some sort of caller, people in the building will get some sort of call, they'll write it off as fake and they won't leave their house. And so there have been people who have seen warnings

coming one way or another. You know, I'm not saying it's directly through a phone call, but through one way or another, and thought, you know, whatever the case, we're not going to leave our homes. And they end up dying in strikes. So there is absolutely a psychological effect. And we have no way of knowing if these fake calls are coming from the Israeli military or officials or individuals or just other people playing pranks. All those things

can be true to varying levels. A neighbor who lives above me got a call from ostensibly a Cuban number that was like an automated recording of sorts, and through her mind she started thinking, you know, what are the different possibilities of these calls? What sort of chances do I want to take? Incidentally, a day or two later, I got a call from a Cuban number as well, and I just chose not to pick it up because at that point we had figured out it was very

likely to be fake. But this has a psychological effect, and this is one of the many things that Lebanese people are dealing with when we talk about these sort of psychological warfare through the things like you know, calls, warnings of your neighborhood or of your entire village at times, or maybe even of your building, sonic booms, distribution of leaflets.

All these things are happening simultaneously when we talk about the things that I'm unreceived again, this is the targeting of media workers and journalists, and you will see kind of this international indifference. Luckily, now there's been kind of more voices, i think, picking up on the fact that journalists are a threat. And it is a case where it seems like yesterday it was Palestinians, and today it's

Lebanese and tomorrow who could be next? And maybe this is starting to ruminate a bit with journalists and the international community. But you know, these are the things that you know, we've seen happen with Lebanese journalists, that they

are directly attacked. There's been huge indifference there. There is always kind of this, you might call it not an indifference, but maybe kind of a hedging of so of like, yeah, of course we don't condone the attack of media workers, you know, but the affiliation with Hesbelah right, because this thing exists on a sliding scale of sorts. International humanitary law is not a super cut and dry thing all the times. So our nuances and exceptions and whatever have

you under international humanitarian laws, I understand it. I mean, media workers absolutely are off the table. They're not somebody who can attack unless they're actually carrying and taking part in battles. Even combatants who are not actively on the field of battle are not legitimate targets. However, Israel does not play by those rules. Israel will target people who are ostensibly in Hamas or Pezbala or other such groups,

even if they're at home with their families. Till now, nobody has held them accountable for this.

affiliation or whatever. We should be clear that it doesn't matter what their affiliation is as a media worker, as a journalist, they should be protected, but because of these affiliations they're not.

messages to Gossan's. I mean, I don't encourage anybody to look for these, but there have been videos of people fleeing their cars because they're about to be droned after receiving a threat saying leave or your family will get

droned with you. Like, it's unbelievable. And of course, as you said, we're talking about journals now, but we've seen a targeting of like medical professionals, Like we've seen quadruple taps at this point of medical professionals to prevent people from helping those under the rubble, to prevent helping those who have now then been targeted for being in an ambulance. I mean, it's a really outrageous state of affairs. Has

there been an exodus of foreign journalists? What's the situation like for those who are in Lebanon.

when you can see the extent of damages. That's when you can actually investigate and see, you know, Okay, now that the firing has stopped, you have better access to places, you can spend more time in places, you can get deeper stories. I mean, Unfortunately, the way that media works today, there's not the luxury of time oftentimes, you know, media outlets are under staffed and underfunded, and so it's a difficult prospect. There's still actually quite a lot of foreign

journalists here. Luckily, some of them even covered Amal Hadi's you know, funeral, they covered her memorial, they covered what happened her because it was such an egregious example, you know.

At the same time, I think that there is this sort of dynamic the Israelis are aware of that if they kill a foreign journalist right like, they can kill they have killed a Lebanese journalists who worked for a major international outlet, and that led to some troubles for them because Reuters and others collaborated to do an investigation. Human rights organizations are reporting on this killing. Other Lebanese journalists that work for less prominent outlets still led to

certain condemnations, certain reports were written. But I think that you know, it's kind of this effect. It's like an avalanche effect. It's that the more sort of attention goes towards these sort of incidents, the more of a more problem it becomes for Israel with their international partners or or their international relations, right, And so I think there's an acute awareness about that from the Israeli side. They know kind of how far they can get away with

things to a certain extent, you know. I think a lot of journalists are aware of that as well, and so they feel that for until now, they can still go into these places. But like you said, it's a widening effect, right, It's trying to see how far you can expand and how.

is not to single out foreign journalists. There are local journalists for amazing and their local journalists for horrible obviously, right, but I think that there is kind of a thought process that, yeah, carrying you know, a foreign passport, working for a major organization still comes with some sort of protection. But I mean, at the same time, this also means that the Israelis killing the journalists that they have killed.

But if we're talking just about the operation of journalists while they're doing their jobs, you know, while they're driving in cars, while they're covering sometimes conflicts, sometimes you know, maybe just moving from one place to the other, it becomes very clear that you know, if you feel protected by the fact that you have a foreign passport, that also means that the Israelis are aware of who they're.

You know, I visited a scene in a Christian town just east of Beyroot, in a place called Ainasade, where our you know, mutual friend Ayub grew up, and we saw the attack, the side of the attack, and I went to a building behind the building that attack that had, you know, we had the view from up top and you could see that two holes were in the rooftop of the building that was struck and it's because the shells went through or the rockets went through the top

of the building through the roof, went down a floor below and then exploded and killed. Well, we ended up killing a local Christian official, and that was, according to Israelis, not the target of who they wanted to kill. But the point being is that they have this technology that they can attack precisely certain areas. They can attack to the apartment, They can blow out the walls of one apartment and leave the one a floor below or two floors below intact.

do that. You know, these are people who who have very public facing social media accounts. These are people who are in the public eye, who are on TV, who are doing all these sort of things. So you know, it really begs to ask many, many questions of the Israelis.

to another river called the Zaharani. According to Human Rights someone at Human Rights Watch Choice spoke to these evacuation demands to comply with international humanitarian law, they need to be precise, they need to be exact, and they need to be temporary. You know, you need to leave your

home now because we're attacking a target. But you know, they can't be open ended the way that they've been with the Israelis, and they cannot be indiscriminate the way that they've been of demanding the entirety of South Lebanon to move north, or the entirety of the southern suburbs. So attacks on Bedut after Black Wednesday have come to

a halt. And it's also true for the southern suburbs, which you know, have been an area whereby they've suffered many, many attacks, and so it's a bit of a stranger respite. At the same time, I think people have gone home to check on their houses. Some people have gone home to just stay in their houses for a variety of reasons, either because they might feel that it's safe for this moment, or you know, they're they're hedging their beds. But still a lot of people have not returned home. Many of

them cannot. These are obviously people at the South, or you cannot if you've had your home destroyed in the South or in the Southern suburbs or parts of the eastern Bacav Valley. You know, I've got a school by my house which is hosting displaced people, and it's still filled with the displaced, either because they cannot go home or because, as many have told me, they don't trust

that this ceasefire will hold. Obviously, in places like the South, it has not held, and it's still ongoing with attacks coming from both sides. In Beidut, you know, it's calm in a sense for this moment. They're they're like I'm in, and there's still a drone overhead. At times, there have been reports of warplanes flying over different parts of the country. So you know, there's still this doubt if this ceasefire, this truce will hold. So we're kind of expecting or

waiting any moment. But I should say that this was also true of the twenty twenty four sees fire to an extent. Now, in twenty twenty four, immediately the next day, people went home, They drove home, they drove south, they went ahead with it. Of course, the attacks from the Israelis did not stop in the south, in Beirut and the southern suburbs predominantly. There were a few attacks in the southern suburbs, but not regular attacks. You know, a

kind of normalcy returned a bit. However, there was still kind of this attitude of waiting and seeing what would happen, because very few people trust the Israelis to stop the attacks. Very few people trust that the Israelis want to stop the war. At this point, in time, they're stronger. They're the hegemon in the region. They controlled the skies to a large extent, they control the seas, and now in southern Lebanon they also, you know, to an extent, control

parts of the land. And so I think that the attitude here is very much one of this truth is tenuous.

do that again. Maybe initially there was something of an exhale kind of okay, we know that we're going to be okay for or we hope will be okay for at least a few days. But as the days go on, and as there's been no conclusion to this issue, and of course we know that these are connected to the Iran US discussions, which are in a whole other place themselves, I think everyone's just kind of waiting to see what develops, and there is the sort of bated breath.

much to think about. Thank you so much for coming on and making time to talk about this, and please stay safe.