Lebanese minister's comments on press freedoms, one-man rule enrage Saudis

Lebanon’s caretaker information minister has enraged Saudis after comments he made during a talk show earlier this week about media freedoms and one-man rule.

A presenter at Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, Mayssoun Noueihed, appeared as a guest on a show airing on Lebanon’s Al Jadeed television channel that touched on press freedoms in the country and across the region, and alleged press freedoms in Lebanon were in a state decline. Her comments came after several journalists have recently been summoned for questioning or sued.

Noueihed, who is Lebanese, said media in the Gulf was "modernising and progressing" to keep up with the modernisation of states in the region, giving the UAE and Saudi Vision 2030 as examples.

"Our problem in Lebanon is that we have no vision, we have no president," she said, adding that she had more rights working as a journalist in the Gulf. 

"Our ambition is that our [Lebanese] state protects us, because at the end of the day we will all return, I won't stay abroad forever."

But in a possible reference to Saudi Arabia and the country's rulers, Lebanese minister Ziad Makary criticised Noueihed's remarks.

#زياد_مكاري : لضرورة الإسراع بإقرار #قانون_الإعلام .. و"ارفض" كلام الإعلامية #ميسون_نويهض#الرئيس @samykleyb@ZiadMakary pic.twitter.com/HCxTfKgICM

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) July 25, 2023

"I'd just like to say something as Mrs. Mayssoun spoke about freedoms. If she is or somebody else is working – and I do not want to name the country she is working in - but if there is a country, for example, in which there is a single ruler and this ruler is not criticised by anyone, then is there freedom?" he said.

He added that the current state of Lebanon’s media reflects the overall "dire" conditions the country has been facing for years, as it reels under a suffocating economic crisis and political deadlock.

Makary’s response was enough to ignite a spate of online attacks by Saudi social media users.

وزارة الإعلام اللبنانية
من المتعوس #جورج_قرداحي
الى خايب الرجاء#زياد_مكاري
وزراء سليمان فرنجيه التابع لحزب الله يسيؤون_ للسعودية .#وزير_الاعلام_اللبناني_يسيء_للسعودية pic.twitter.com/tTdE9bRtEb

— صالح الفهد (@s_alfaha4) July 27, 2023

Translation: The Lebanese Ministry of Information. From the miserable George Kordahi to the disappointment Ziad Makary, Sleiman Franjieh’s ministers who are affiliated with Hezbollah offend Saudi Arabia.

His comments have even prompted angry responses from Lebanese people who say such criticism of Saudi Arabia puts the large Lebanese diaspora working in the kingdom at jeopardy.

حضرتك قبل ما تحكي عن بلدان و الحريات و اعلام دول اخرى ، اذهب لملم الاعلام اللبناني المنهار الذي اصبح اضحوكة بسببك و سبب الوزراء اللي قبلك…#وزير_الاعلام_اللبناني #زياد_مكاري #لبنان #اعلام #الاعلام pic.twitter.com/BFbOVdiIxY

— Hussein S. ElHariri (@HusseinElhariri) July 28, 2023

Translation: Before you talk about freedoms and the media in other countries, go and sort out the failing media in Lebanon, which has become a laughing stock because of you ministers like you, said one Lebanese national who works for the Saudi-owned media group MBC.

Makary has yet to respond to the criticism.

The minister’s comments have brought back to memory "controversial" statements made by former Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi in 2021, who before taking on that role had made critical comments on Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Yemen war during a television interview.

Kordahi's comments led Saudi Arabia to expel Lebanon’s envoy to the kingdom, recall its ambassador and ban all Lebanese imports, dealing an additional blow to the country's ailing economy.

Kordahi, a popular television presenter best known for hosting the pan-Arab edition of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' on MBC for many years, later resigned.

But Kordahi’s comments – where he said the Yemen conflict, for which Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in since 2015, was "absurd" – were only part of a wider rift between Beirut and Riyadh.

Although a historical ally of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia over the years has grown increasingly frustrated with what it considers Hezbollah’s growing influence in Lebanon and its dominant role in the country’s affairs.

Hezbollah is the powerful, Iran-backed Shia party which has allegedly backed Yemen’s Houthi militants which Riyadh is fighting.

Both Makary and Kordahi represent the Christian Marada Movement in the Lebanese cabinet, a strong ally of Hezbollah and whose leader Sleiman Frangieh is the Shia group’s current presidential candidate.

Although tensions have eased between Beirut and Riyadh, and despite a detente earlier this year between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Hezbollah is still classified a terrorist organisation by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council.