Lebanon: CFWIJ demands authorities to dismiss the libel case filed against journalist Diana Moukalled

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January 9, 2021, Beirut – Veteran journalist and the editor-in-chief of the news outlet Daraj, Diana Moukalled, will appear in court on January 14 for her alleged defamation of a person named ‘Rahhal’. The journalist was given no further information about her libel case. The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) demands authorities to clarify the details of the lawsuit filed against Diana and reject the proposed charges. We urge Lebanese authorities to end their intimidation of journalists and to respect press freedom. 
Diana announced the libel case filed against her on her Twitter account. She said, “I recently reported a case of defamation and slander from Mr. Rahal”. She stressed that she was not provided with any details of the case, “Please, those who know Mr. Rahal’s identity, inform us. The notification paper is incomplete, or perhaps the court has decided Mr. Rahal is a well-known figure, whose identity is being protected by the lack of a full name or date of the case”.

CFWIJ follows similar cases initiated against women journalists around the world. Many libel cases have been filed against prominent Filipino journalist Maria Ressa over the years. Maria Ressa is the founder of Rappler news site and was named a Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2018 for fighting media intimidation. The journalist and her team have been facing several cyber libel cases in the Philippines, where the Duterte government has increased pressure on democratic freedoms.

Another incident we documented was towards the news portal Necenzurirano.si’s managers. The news outlet faced a total of 39 law cases initiated on accusations of “defamation” of a famous tax expert, known to have ties to the government. The Association of Journalists of Slovenia reported that journalists Primus Cirman, Vesna Vukovic and Thomas Modica were targeted for writing about the transactions of Rok Senžič, revealing fraud and corruption.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism denounces the attempts to silence journalists. Many journalists in Lebanon face arbitrary charges solely for doing their job. We urge the authorities to discourage such lawsuits that target journalists and their work.