Despite Lebanon's small size,3 radio and television stations proliferated during the 1975-1990 civil war, many of them launched by various militias and sectarian groups. These stations later continued to operate under private ownership, but they remained unlicensed and there were no laws or administrative procedures for the stations to obtain licenses. The large number of unregulated stations led one journalist to characterize Lebanon as "the Wild West of the broadcasting world" and "the launch pad for anyone with a coat hanger and a satellite dish to set up their own television station."4 The only licensed stations were Radio Lebanon of the Lebanese Broadcasting Station, founded in 1937 and now part of the Ministry of Information, and Télé-Liban of the government-owned Lebanese Television Company (LTV), which was established in 1959.
There were several false starts to reorganize the broadcast media in the early 1990s,5 but the government did not take action until late 1994, when parliament passed Law No. 382 to regulate television and radio broadcasting. The law was signed by President Elias Hrawi and Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on November 4, 1994. It enshrined the principle of freedom of the audiovisual media, adding that such freedom was to be governed by the rule of law.6 The broadcasting law essentially revoked the monopoly held by Télé-Liban and Radio Lebanon over licensed broadcasting in Lebanon, and laid the legal groundwork for the operation of privately owned television and radio stations. It made clear that frequency bands for television channels and radio stations were a state monopoly, available for lease to Lebanese joint-stock corporations.7
The law required that stations apply for licenses, which would be valid for sixteen years, and specified that licensing decisions would be made by a decree of the cabinet (also known as the council of ministers), part of theexecutive branch of government.8 The National Council for Video and Audio Media (NCVAM), an advisory ten-member body established by the law, was to assist the cabinet in its decision making, although the NCVAM had no power to grant broadcasting licenses. Half of the NCVAM's members are appointed by parliament and half by the cabinet, with all of them serving three-year terms. The NCVAM was formed in 1995, and its lack of independence emerged as a major issue in 1996 (see below).
The broadcasting law also set forth a patchwork of diverse and potentially conflicting broad principles that were to be taken into consideration in granting licenses. Among these were "respect of ... the freedom and rights of others, the pluralistic nature of the expression of ideas and opinions, the objectivity of news and events broadcasts, the preservation of public order, the needs of national defense, and the exigencies of public welfare."9 The law also imposed a special requirement with respect to Israel, stating that stations may not broadcast anything that "promote[s] a relationship with the Zionist enemy."10
Despite the law's explicit declaration concerning freedom of the media, it created two distinct categories of television and radio stations: those that would be permitted to broadcast programs, including news and political programs, to all regions of Lebanon (Category 1 stations), and those that would be authorized to broadcast programs to all regions of Lebanon with the important exception of news and political programs (Category 2). Political programming is defined as follows: "Programs that discuss domestic or foreign policies and issues of public concern related to the work of ministries, all public authorities and institutions, and municipalities, their relationship with citizens and with each other, and the behavior of their employees."11 The law did not specify a rationale for imposing such sweeping content restrictions on the Category 2 stations.12
Television and radio station owners told Human Rights Watch that they had expected immediate implementation of the law, given the language in the statute concerning the two-month "grace period" that was granted to stations operating without licenses.13 The owners waited for directions from the government about licensing procedures, but no action was taken until 1996.
3 With a land area of 10,230 square kilometers, Lebanon is about one-third the size of Belgium, and 80 percent of the size of the state of Connecticut in the U.S. The widest point from east to west is eighty-eight kilometers, and the country's average width is fifty-six kilometers. Running roughly parallel to the flat Mediterranean coastline are the Lebanon Mountains, which extend 169 kilometers from Tripoli in the north to the Litani River in the south. The mountain range provides a formidable north-south physical barrier, with peaks rising to heights 3,360 meters at al-Qurnat as-Sawda, southeast of Tripoli, and 2,695 meters at Mount Sannin, northeast of Beirut.A country's size and geographic features are two of the variables that determine, in engineering terms, the spectrum that may be allocated for radio and television broadcasting. Depending upon the amount of power being used, a television or FM radio station that broadcasts from a mountaintop typically has a great "line of sight" and potential broadcast range. Conversely, an audience far from a station or separated from it by mountains may be unable to receive its broadcasts. For AM radio, "line of sight" makes less difference, but the topography near the transmitter and antenna affects the station's range.
4 Jan Millichip, "Lebanon Pulls Plug on Rampant `Coat-Hanger' Piracy," The Independent, October 2, 1996. Millichip put the number of radio stations at over one hundred, and the number of unlicensed television stations at thirty-eight to fifty-seven. No one interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Lebanon was able to confirm the precise number of unlicensed stations. 5 See Middle East Watch and the Fund for Free Expression, "Lebanon's Lively Press Faces Worst Crackdown Since 1976," July 1993, pp. 32-33. 6 Article 3 of the law states: "The video and audio media are free. The freedom of the media is exercised within the framework of the rules of the constitution and the laws in effect." Here, and throughout this report, quotations from Lebanon's 1994 broadcasting law, and the 1996 decree that implemented the law (see below), are unofficial translations by Human Rights Watch from the original Arabic. 7 Article 9 and Article 12. 8 Article 16. 9 Article 7. 10 Article 7. 11 Decree No. 7997 (1996), Chapter 3, Programs. See below for additional information about this decree. 12 Article 10. The creation of Category 2 stations was opposed by parliamentary deputies led by Hussein Husseini, who unsuccessfully attempted to amend this provision of the law. Mr. Husseini told Human Rights Watch that he believed the government's aim has been to decrease the number of stations authorized to broadcast news and political programming. Interview, Beirut, November 5, 1996. 13 Article 50 stated: "Television and radio establishments already operating before the enactment of this law are granted a two-month grace period to present license applications after the Ministry of Information's announcement of its acceptance of applications. The Government may extend the grace period of the completion of the application dossier. These establishments may operate and pursue their work until issuance of a licensing decree or until a license is refused. In the latter case it is granted another grace period to liquidate its operations."