Lebanon: Threats directed at former CFWIJ fellow Luna Safwan are outrageous. Her safety must be ensured at all cost.

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October 2, 2020 -- The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) is enraged about the incessant online harassment and threats that our former fellow and independent journalist Luna Safwan is being targeted with. We demand Lebanese authorities to ensure Luna’s safety and apprehend her culprits who are openly sending her death threats online and using inappropriate labels to malign her.

Luna is being harassed and threatened online for her political views. She has been a target of an organized troll campaign, which caused her to receive immense hate and threats for the last few days. Most of the threats, harassment, abuse and trolling icome from Pro-Hezbollah social media accounts.

CFWIJ reached out to Luna and extended out solidarity. We also spoke with her to understand what led the attacks to escalate to this extent.

“It started a few days ago after the speech of Hassan Nasrallah - Secretary-General of Hezbollah. I was tweeting about Hezbollah and asking questions about the Netanyahu documents, pictures and google maps images that he had shared. Then I posted a picture about Hezbollah’s flag, which read ‘THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM’,” Luna said when explaining how the trolling began.

She added that the attacks began after she wrote that the country seems to be hijacked by Hezbollah. The smear further escalated when an account which belongs to a man who, according to Luna, supposedly works for the Al-Manar TV. He targeted Luna after an Isreali channel quoted one of her tweets in their report. Harassers then began to call for her arrest and tried to frame her in the process.

“He wrote that I’m the journalist that was quoted by Israel and I must be really proud of that. After that all Hezbollah supporters started attacking me and assumed that I supported Israel. This is what usually happens when a journalist posts something about Hezbollah, especially if it is someone who opposes their politics,” Luna informed CFWIJ.

Luna also shared screenshots of most of the threats and abuse she has been receiving on her Twitter. She posted the screenshots on her social media accounts, where she is very vocal about her opinions on regional political matters.

In one of her tweets Luna wrote, “So Lebanon (Via pro-Hezbollah parties) and Israel are basically agreeing to start the "Border talks". So #Lebanon is basically nodding its head accepting Israel as a neighboring country, via Nabih Berri himself. I can now see why Their cyber army was mad today,”

“Cyber armies & security bureaus in #Lebanon is known to successfully paint narratives against independent journalists/activists to frame them for 'cooperating with Israel' - we have seen many cases, starting with @ZiadItanioff,” she stated in another tweet.

Discussing politics in Lebanon online, especially if one does not necessarily agree with Hezbollah’s stance, can result in a lot of hate and threats. Those who share their views, which do not coincide with the general belief, get labelled as traitors. This is exactly what happened with our fellow.

Luna’s cousin also attacked her on Twitter and called her names  following their political differences. She even tried to influence her family against her.

Explaining her extended family’s stance on Twitter, Luna wrote, “For those who don't know, my extend Fam is pro Hezbollah.”

Since the Beirut explosion, reporting in Lebanon is becoming more complicated amid reports that the Lebanese army is preventing journalists from doing their job. In addition, the amount of harassment and attacks on journalists have significantly increased. In one of her tweets in August, Luna shared that harassers and bullies online are advocating for violence against certain TV stations - both local and international.

This is not the first time that Luna is being attacked online. After protests broke out in Beirut last year, Luna was also one of the many women journalists who were attacked in an active smear campaign. Their only “crime” was to share their opinions and report about the deteriorating economy and political turmoil. Luna was also on the ground covering the protests that turned Beirut into a conflict zone.

“Women journalists were mainly targeted, whether it was physically on the ground or online through verbal attacks, smear campaigns and threats,” Luna informed us when we spoke to her in 2019, following her protests coverage.

While Luna has been getting hate and threats for her reporting and views online, she also has immense support and love coming towards herself. Several journalists and advocates of press freedom have been extending their solidarity for Luna.

https://twitter.com/LarissaAounSky/status/1311771981310816257

https://twitter.com/DimaSadek/status/1311774981890678794

https://twitter.com/AlGaouria/status/1311769491857117185

Whether a certain news or update corresponds with one’s belief or not, it is a journalist’s job to report it anyway. This is what Luna has been doing. However, she is being sent death threats and receiving abuse for her work. CFWIJ is also appalled that such targeted online hate campaign comes right after #ThreatsToWIJ campaign. No democracy in the world can survive without its journalists and press freely exercising their right to speech. Lebanon must do better and ensure the safety of its citizens, particularly journalists.

We demand Lebanese authorities to look into this matter and ensure Luna’s safety. All those involved in harassing her and sending death threats online must be punished. It is only a matter of time that these online attacks can creep into a journalist’s physical spaces.