Lebanon – Media‘s many mouths

ENAR

After nearly seven years, the tape came off MTV’s mouth last month, or so an advertising billboard told us before the April 7 relaunching of the television station. MTV was closed after Gabriel Murr, the station’s owner, won the 2002 by-election in the Metn. Subsequently, Murr, who had won thanks from voters opposed to Syria and to Lebanon’s pro-Syrian president and government, was denied both his seat and his station, which was officially closed for violating laws on political advertising. The reopening of the station comes at a crucial moment before parliamentary elections this June. It is an open secret that those behind MTV’s revival are, in part, keen to ensure that Christian voters will not have their opinions determined solely by the leading television station, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC). To their minds, this could turn to the disadvantage of the March 14 coalition, even if others argue that