Comment

Opportunity in crisis

by Yasser Akkaoui
written by Yasser Akkaoui
The fruit of opportunity is rotting on the branch in the fertile Bekaa Valley, literally. The Syrian civil war has effectively closed the border to trucks carrying exports of Lebanese fruit and vegetables to markets in neighboring countries and beyond. 
 
Now imagine — and this will take some effort — a government responsive to crisis, innovative in plotting solutions and effective in carrying them out. There is the military airport at Rayak in the middle of the Bekaa; why not schedule flights — through the state-owned Middle East Airlines or mobilize Lebanon’s fleet of private jets sitting — to fly shipments of Bekaa-grown produce to Gulf markets for Ramadan? While it would be a form of subsidy and a short-term fix, it would maintain the continuity of supply chains, help farmers and communities over the hump of this current crisis, and generate massive kudos for the Lebanese state — there is no better way to build a cohesive nation than to create a sense in people that their government is looking out for them.
 
With tourism in decline, the economy stalling and the region in crisis, it is incumbent upon our so-called leaders to use the resources at their disposal to come up with these sorts of innovative solutions to steer the country into the clear. Or tap the entrepreneurial spirit of Lebanon’s private sector to develop creative detours around the country’s economic impasses.
 
Crisis is a time of opportunity — if only our leaders could lead. 
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Finance

Getting off the ground

by Maya Sioufi
written by Maya Sioufi

The ingredients for creating a successful technology hub in Lebanon are on the table: ambitious entrepreneurs, power hungry venture capitalists and enthusiastic accelerators and incubators. Along with this growing ecosystem, there are increasing opportunities to invest in startups and when opportunities arise, money usually follows.

In previous years, there were essentially two cards to play to fund a business in Lebanon: ask family and friends (the most commonly played card), or apply for a loan with Kafalat, the government-sponsored entity that helps provide small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with commercial bank funding by acting as a guarantor. The straight loan-from-a-bank card was, and still is, absent from the deck. “The environment is risky and startups are even riskier,” says Ibrahim Salibi, head of commercial and corporate banking at Bank Audi. “It might not be the right timing today [for banks] to finance startups.” 

 
So far, banks have predominantly provided funds to new businesses through their corporate social responsibility departments — by launching competitions for instance — and through providing Kafalat loans, with a total of $165 million in loans extended last year and another $71 million in the first six months of this year.  “I call Kafalat the Lebanese miracle,” says Walid Hanna, chief executive of Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP). “They are credited to having started and funded thousands of companies in Lebanon and created tens of thousands of jobs.” Guaranteeing at least 75 percent of the payment, Kafalat allows banks to confidently lend to entrepreneurs but those loans are not extended to all sectors; they cover the industry, agriculture, tourism, traditional crafts and high technology sectors, leaving some startups without access to these loans.
 
While stressing the “fantastic value” of the Kafalat program, Habib Haddad, chief executive of Wamda, a regional platform for entrepreneurs, does not recommend taking on such a loan at an early stage as he believes “the earlier the stage of the startup, the more value added it needs beyond cash in the form of mentorship, contacts, helping in hiring and in negotiating with clients etcetera. All this comes from venture capitalists.”

The ventures of capital
Venture capitalists (VCs) are a more recent card added to the funding deck. While only a handful of VCs are active in the local market, the increasing awareness of the value added provided by these experienced backers, combined with the growing need for capital, is making this avenue of financing one that is gaining more and more importance. Many banks are also supporting VC players by investing in their funds.

“The general attitude of local banks is ‘let someone else get the process right’, as the industry has not been streamlined yet. It will take some time and once we start to see real genuine long-term businesses, we will allocate resources to it; this a testing period,” says Khaled Zeidan, who wears both the hat of a banker as general manager of MedSecurities, a BankMed subsidiary, and of a venture capitalist as chairman of one of MEVP’s two funds.

Berytech Fund, MEVP, Cedrus Ventures and more recently Wamda are all looking to invest in early stage startups. Accelerator Seeqnce has also jumped on the bandwagon through a different proposal: a competition in which anyone with an idea within the tech space can apply and the founding members will eventually create eight startups — each receiving $100,000 of which $38,000 is in cash and the rest in services — in exchange for a 30 percent equity in their newly founded startup.

Lack of upstream support 
Fadi Bizri, one of the founders of Seeqnce, said the idea to start this competition came because of the lack of upstream support for start-ups in Lebanon. Entrepreneurs at an early stage often struggle to find enough support — regarding things such as developing a business plan or finding missing talent in the team — to turn their ideas into viable businesses that would eventually become interesting investment opportunities.

Hanna believes that what is missing within the ecosystem is “more of the like of Seeqnce and Berytech”, providers of upstream support for early stage entrepreneurs. Michel Nehme of Cedrus Ventures agrees on this shortfall and believes that all venture capitalists should provide a “shove” to entrepreneurs through mentorship on a voluntary basis.

Targeting that lack of upstream support, Ideaz Factory has made a call for business ideas from Lebanese between the age of 16 and 30, to be submitted to a high profile jury made up of established entrepreneurs who will select eight ideas and help develop them into viable businesses. The whole process, which ends with the selection of a winner, will be broadcast on national television from mid-September and provide an opportunity for the public to invest in the ideas too. Many believe the lack of upstream support curtails the development of quality start-ups and investment opportunities. Zeidan notes, “There are very few quality companies and quality entrepreneurs in Lebanon.” Hanna concurs, saying “there are only one or two crème de la crème start ups in Lebanon."

Collaboration vs. competition

With only a few quality startups to pick from, one might think there would be tight competition between VCs to scoop up the best pickings, but, running small funds — no larger than $15 million in size — they are actually more likely to cooperate and share the meals. For instance, Berytech’s fund and MEVP invested together this year in Wixel Studios, a provider of gaming applications, for an undisclosed amount. Hanna says that VCs go “clubbing together” and share investment ideas.

A celebration for innovation
Large scale competitions, networking activities, opportunities to meet investors, chances to add talent to a team — these are some examples of the activities organized by Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), a worldwide event, launched in 2008 and held annually in November. Starting initially with 37 countries, GEW now takes place in 115 countries, including Lebanon. With more than 24,000 partner organizations on board, GEW aims to honor innovators and helping startups reach their full potential through organizing more than 37,000 activities globally. This year GEW is being held between November 12 and 18, and eight countries from the Middle East will be participating: Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Lebanon will be hosting its fourth GEW and the number of participating partners has more than doubled in just one year, from 27 in 2011 up to 59 this year. Incubators, venture capital firms, governmental and non-governmental organizations are all hopping on the bandwagon. 45 activities were organized during the week last year and more than double are expected this year with several partners organizing joint events. Expect a lot of noise both online and offline in the build up of these activities.

Cooperation can spoil the meal though, as hungry VCs can turn into “vulture capitalists” by taking control of the venture from the entrepreneurs. “Asshole VCs that team up together can come up with very harsh terms,” complains Haddad. Bizri adds that “a lot of entrepreneurs know very little about raising funds, don’t know what their options are and they get massively ripped off by people.”

Infrastructure issues

The workshop, however, for building any sort of hub for innovation in Lebanon is lacking some tools, among them proper Internet and telecommunication connections, online payments facilitated by local banks and talent mobility, to name a few.

“If you want to use Lebanon as a test bed for your e-commerce company it is very tough to do that,” says Haddad of Wamda. Stephane Abi Chaker, head of investment banking at Blom Bank also notes that, “information technology (IT) infrastructure is much more important than financing for technology and telecommunication start-ups.”

Talent mobility is another issue. “In the United States, a country of 300 million people, there is lack of talent as Google and Facebook hire from all over world,” says Haddad. “So in a country of four million people, of course there is a lack of talent and we need to open up to allow that talent to come in.” He points to Jordan’s more advanced web space and to companies such as Maktoob Yahoo as sources of potential talent.

In the end, however, “If you are a real entrepreneur, nothing will stop you,” says Nehme of Cedrus Ventures. Financing issues seem to be less of a challenge, as most of the players of the ecosystem tend to agree that when there is a good deal, there is the money. Getting more of the deals “investment ready” seems to be the key obstacle for now. “Entrepreneurs in Lebanon are not mature enough and not trained well enough to become investment ready but once they are investment ready, they could find money” adds Hanna.

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Finance

Mena stock tips, August 2012

by Executive Staff
written by Executive Staff

Last month new banking scandals came to the forefront. JP Morgan announced  first-half trading losses of $5.8 billion amidst intensifying fraud investigations, while Barclays was engulfed in a rigging scandal regarding the London Interbank Offered Rate, which saw heads roll — including that of CEO Bob Diamond — with investigations potentially expanding to nearly two dozen banks. The European sovereign debt crisis is still heated, with Spain approving yet another austerity package — its fourth in seven months — and receiving a 100 billion euro bank bailout. For investment recommendations, Executive sits again with Khaled Zeidan, general manager of MedSecurities, a BankMed subsidiary and Ammar Bakheet, head of asset management at Bank Audi.   

Khaled Zeidan

General market thoughts? Zeidan is somewhat bullish and expects stock indices to end the year on a positive note. “Maybe up between 9 to 12 percent but in the meantime it could be choppy,” he says. He believes that there will be further stimulus from the United States because “the economy needs this.” He would avoid investing in Europe as he believes that we have not seen the worst yet. “I think there is no political will today to resolve this issue,” he adds.

Favorite asset classes? Last September, Zeidan recommended investing in both equities and bonds and now he recommends keeping a balance between asset classes with a slight preference for equities over bonds. With risk premiums up and with a positive correlation between the two asset classes, choosing one asset over another becomes “sort of insignificant” according to Zeidan. The only asset class which remains unhurt is cash but its “problem is that it is experiencing slow death which you don’t see; it’s like aging. You don’t feel it; then you see a friend you haven’t seen for 10 years and you realize that this is how they probably view me; that’s the problem with cash.”

Thoughts on the MENA region? His view on the region’s top markets  have not changed from last September as he still likes Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but he is also adding Egypt now as he expects the markets in this country to recover as “ultimately the Muslim Brotherhood are red-blooded capitalists. One of the main figures is Khairat al-Shater, one of the wealthiest men in Egypt.” Another MENA market he finds interesting is Iraq and he wouldn’t be surprised to see an “astounding performance” once the proper structure for equity markets is in place. 

Thoughts on Lebanese securities? He would only buy Solidere as he believes it is cheap and undervalued (to keep everything above board, it should be noted here that BankMed is one of Solidere’s largest shareholders). Once there is a resolution in Syria, “Solidere will be limit up [limit on the shareprice] for three to four days. You need to be willing to make that bet and I think its reasonable given that your downside is limited,” adds Zeidan. 

Ammar Bakheet

General market thoughts? Bakheet is risk averse and says investors generally are not excited about risky investments either, such as equities, due to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the slowdown in the economy of China and emerging markets. He would prefer being exposed to the US markets over Europe as he believes “Europe will be in a mess for a while.” Within Europe he would favor safe companies with solid earnings, good balance sheets and high dividend yields such as food manufacturer Nestle or pharmaceutical company Roche.

Favorite asset classes? In September, Bakheet recommended high quality fixed income bonds and blue chip companies. Now he recommends starting to gradually add exposure to the equity markets as they are at “very attractive levels.” He favors high quality stocks with solid dividends.

Thoughts on MENA markets? Bakheet is still sticking to the same countries he recommended last year: Saudi Arabia (SA) and Qatar because of their solid fundamentals, attractive valuations and dividend yields. As for Egypt, he prefers to see signs of stability before stepping into this market. He would invest in the telecommunications, banking, food and beverages, retail and cement sectors both in SA and Qatar. His top picks are Saudi Arabian telecommunications company Mobily — which he recommended back in September and is up 20 percent since — Al Rajhi Bank in SA and Qatar National Bank.

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Syria’s arms economy

by Nicholas Blanford
written by Nicholas Blanford

The prices of some popular weapons on Lebanon's black market have dropped for the first time since the uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

Bearing in mind that the demand that drove prices to record highs was almost all from Syria, the recent dip appears to strengthen reports that Syria's armed opposition is gaining ever-greater access to weapons and ammunition.

The two weapon types that recorded the largest drop are AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. In March 2011, a good-quality Russian AK-47 or the Polish-manufactured version, known in Lebanon as a “Circle 11” from the stamp on the metalwork, cost around $1,100. By April this year, however, the rifle had doubled in price to around $2,200. The price climb for RPGs was even higher. A single grenade in March 2011 was worth $100 (itself a significant rise given that five years earlier it was selling for about $10). By April, however, it was nudging close to $1,000. Arms dealers were grumbling that they could not even find RPG rounds on the market.

However, since the beginning of May, both AK-47 and RPG prices have dropped to around $1,800 and $700 respectively. The cost of 7.62mm ammunition for the AK-47 also has declined from around $100 for a box of 50 rounds in April to $83 in June. Both AK-47 rifles and RPGs were the most commonly used, and sought after, weapons for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other armed opposition groups. The drop in prices suggests that the FSA is receiving a regular supply of armaments today, which has lessened demand in Lebanon.

It is widely believed that Saudi Arabia and Qatar have begun funding the FSA and that fresh arms supplies are reaching the fighters, mainly from Turkey. The New York Times reported in mid-June that CIA officers were in Turkey monitoring the flow of weapons to ensure that the recipients were not groups that shared Al-Qaeda's ideology.

The FSA also has had increasing success in raiding Syrian army depots and stealing weapons and ammunition, or co-opting Syrian army officers with access to arsenals. Indeed, the profits to be made from selling weapons have spurred Syrian soldiers to steal weapons and sell them on the black market, according to Lebanese arms dealers. That has led to some Syrian army weapons, including RPG rounds, to enter the Lebanese market.

The enormous profits to be made from selling arms has blurred political loyalties. There is a story presently circulating in the Bekaa about a member of a Syrian-backed political party who was in charge of the group's arsenal in his village. He struck a deal with a man from an influential family to sell the weapons to the Syrian opposition and they would split the proceeds. The weapons were duly sold across the border, but the second man then refused to share the profit with the party member. In revenge, the party member told the police where they could find the second man, who had a string of arrest warrants. The police laid an ambush and the second man died in a gunfight. The relatives of the second man then kidnapped the party member and he has not been seen since.

While AK-47 and RPG prices have declined, the cost of prestige weapons continues to climb. They include arms such as the AKS-74U, popularly known in Lebanon as the “Bin Laden gun” as it apparently was favored by the former Al-Qaeda leader. A Bin Laden gun costs $5,000 today, compared to about $2,800 a year ago. A Russian “Dushka” 12.7mm heavy machine gun is worth a staggering $9,000 compared to $3,000 in March 2011. Even that pales to the price of an American M4 assault rifle fitted with a M203 grenade launcher. Worth $5,000 in March 2011, today it will set you back at least $15,000.

 

NICHOLAS BLANFORD is the Beirut-based correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and The Times of London

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Getting Beirut’s green back

by Ali Sayed-Ali
written by Ali Sayed-Ali

On a hot Saturday in mid-June, hundreds of young people across Beirut took part in a campaign to temporarily occupy key high traffic locations and replace them with ‘guerrilla gardens’. What took place was a welcome contrast from the tire-burning and road-blocking protests of late; instead, participants laid out patches of grass on sidewalks and roundabouts and picnicked under umbrellas to raise the profile of their cause for public green spaces.

Only two days before, the chief of the Beirut municipality, Bilal Hamad, held a press conference to announce the launch of the “Beirut is Amazing” initiative. Attempting to both respond to public pressure and direct the discourse, Hamad announced plans to rejuvenate the city’s parks. Unfortunately, the project is as uninspired as its name, and ignores an area constituting 77 percent of the city’s public green space — the Horsh Beirut. This park is a key issue of the guerrilla gardeners.

The Horsh — destroyed by fire in an Israeli raid during the civil war — is a sprawling 330,000 square meter urban park that until now is reserved for the exclusive use of those selected by the Beirut governorate. Only two years ago this historic piece of real estate was a non-issue for most Beirutis. That was until a non-governmental organization called Nahnoo (Arabic for ‘us’) rallied supporters and started asking the right questions. Today, beyond their media campaign, Nahnoo has compiled research, consulted legal experts and urban planners, organized public events and coupled advocacy with a policy focus to lobby cooperatively with decision makers.  The movement, however, isn’t without detractors — including many ordinary citizens from neighborhoods around the park. In typical ‘tragedy of the commons’ rationale, critics of the campaign say the Lebanese will not be able to collectively own such a pristine space without destroying it, pointing to threats as terrifying as barbecues, argileh, littering, and “immoral behavior”; thus, we must deprive ourselves of our public space in order to protect it. Hamad himself made these very arguments during a public forum organized by Nahnoo earlier this year.  The forum attracted an almost full house at Hamra’s Madina Theatre, where the majority of the audience was too young to remember the park in its glory days. Many were also angry. They saw the park’s closure as an act of exclusion, one that deprived them of a much-needed refuge from Beirut’s concrete jungle and a meeting point in a city that has one of the lowest levels of public green space in the world. Of course, it is not simply about green space, and the reasons given for the parks closure are superficial at best.

In a sectarian and segregated city the park takes on new meaning. Its triangular shape separates the suburbs from the city with barb-wired walls, keeping Christian, Sunni, and Shia neighborhoods apart. The question that many are asking away from the spotlight reveals an unspoken yet palpable sectarian turf war: “Who will control the park?” Of course legally, the municipality would be required to ensure the park remains clean and safe. On the ground, control is exercised differently. Groups of young men loyal to this or that political bloc could set up shop, hang their flags and effectively “take over” the space. Some believe that Sunni and Shia youth will clash and the violence could ruin Horsh Beirut.

Those leading the campaign for public access to the park understand the risks and realize that a sense of community ownership is necessary for its survival once opened. This is why they are planning to use the space to bring youth together, undertake public education programs and create an active Horsh Beirut neighborhood association to play a role in ensuring responsible use of the park. The tug of war over this rare publicly-owned green oasis in a slowly suffocating city represents a clash between two ideologies: those with a ‘fear-of-the-other’ worldview and a new generation that refuses to submit to prevailing stereotypes and are adamant about reclaiming public space for the people; while the former sees the park through the prism of perpetual conflict and eyes it with suspicion, the latter looks to make the Horsh a space for community and unity, and a source of hope for the future. In many ways, it is the struggle between continuing to entrench the trauma of the civil war and moving Lebanese society forward.

 

ALI SAYED-ALI works in democracy and civil society development in the MENA region

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A dwindling number of options

by Jihad Yazigi
written by Jihad Yazigi

Press reports that the Syrian government is printing money in Russia to pay civil servants salaries and to close its budget deficit have raised serious concerns.

Two issues — one political and the other financial — are at stake.

The decision to print Syrian bank notes in Russia has been known for some time, as the Minister of Finance, Mohammad Jleilati, announced at the end of May that his government was close to finalizing discussions with the Russian authorities for that purpose. It follows a ban imposed last fall by the European Union on printing Syrian bank notes; two EU members, Austria and Belgium, were among the countries printing Syrian currencies.

However, by going to Moscow, the Syrian authorities have only confirmed an increased dependency towards their Russian counterparts, with all the political consequences that this new state of affairs may entail. For months now, the consecutive rounds of sanctions imposed by the EU, the United States, the Arab League and Turkey have squeezed the Syrian government’s room to maneuver and increased reliance on Russia. Last December, for instance, the Central Bank of Syria announced that it had opened correspondent accounts with three Russian banks — VTB, VEB and Gazprombank — in a bid to avert new sanctions on its foreign assets by the European Union, which were eventually imposed in February.

Since then, there has been speculation that much of the country’s foreign reserves had been moved to Moscow, though a lack of transparency makes it difficult to confirm the location of these assets or their size (estimated at around $17 billion prior to the beginning of the uprising in March 2011). Other indications of this growing dependency include negotiations to have Syria join the existing Customs Union that consists of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, or the recent series of bilateral agreements in sectors as varied as petroleum, electricity and manufacturing.

As international calls for action to stop the bloodshed in Syria grow, Russia is likely to hold an increasing number of cards in its hand to pressure Damascus. From a financial and monetary point of view, however, the main issue of concern is not where Syria prints its currency but for what purpose. Indeed, while the story initially published by Reuters quoted Syrian bankers saying that the newly printed money was meant to finance the government’s deficit, the governor of the Syrian Central Bank strongly denied it, saying that the new bank notes would replace worn out bills, an operation the central bank “has been regularly doing since it was established just like every central bank around the world.” The government has also denied it was having any difficulties financing salaries and other payables; Jleilati recently said that the 2012 budget deficit was forecast at a reasonable 6 to 7 percent of gross domestic product, in line with expectations. The Minister of Finance has an obvious interest in downplaying the difficulties his government is facing, but while there is little doubt that the treasury is increasingly strained, it is difficult to claim that a collapse is imminent.

It will not be easy to identify the purpose for the government to print new bank notes. Since May 2011, the Central Bank has stopped publishing its monthly bulletin, which reported, among other things, the levels of money supply. What is clear, however, is that if the government were to resort to the printing press to finance its expenses, the risk is an immediate inflationary impact.

While the government had managed to keep a relative lid on the consumer price index for most of last year, prices have jumped in recent months, climbing 15 percent in January on an annual basis, and more than 30 percent in March and April — including a more than 40 percent increase in the food and beverages category. Relying on the printing press, therefore, risks increased social unrest.

However, the only obvious conclusion from this debate is that both from a political point of view and from a financial rationale, the options at the hands of the Syrian government are fast declining.

 

JIHAD YAZIGI is editor-in-chief of The Syria Report

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Economics & Policy

Q&A – Walid Daouk

by Zak Brophy
written by Zak Brophy

Walid Daouk, Lebanon’s minister of Information, was given a baptism of fire upon taking his post in June 2011 when his pet piece of draft legislation, The Lebanese Internet Regulation Act (LIRA), caused a storm of opposition and vitriolic denunciations, leading it to being put on the back burner. Executive met with the minister to discuss life after the LIRA and the promise and perils within Lebanon’s media sector.   

What was your incentive to develop the LIRA legislation?
I have not seen any legislation related to electronic media. What I had in mind was to protect the [news] websites. There are so many of them and they are of great importance. In the coming couple of years they will become more important than the newspapers. I said let’s not try to regulate, but fix it in some way. I had two ideas. The first was to put a label that will let us know where the website is domiciled. This would make it more credible.

The second part of the law was to help the websites get better services. What can you do if another website is able to steal your content as soon as you post it? So to protect the intellectual property rights of a website, I would say the registered website would benefit from the legal intellectual property rights in Lebanon.

Were you surprised by the backlash to your proposed law?
Unfortunately I didn’t lobby with the community because it didn’t occur to [me]. I saw there was a loophole in the law and I wanted a law that would benefit the owners of the websites. In my mind it was great, but unfortunately some people were against it and said that I am against freedom of speech. This is not true, in the second article of the draft law I said freedom of speech was fully respected.

Do you still think new websites, news or otherwise, should have to register with the government?
No, they don’t have to. The law is for those that want to. It is not obligatory.

Would Lebanese libel law also apply to the registered websites?
Yes, if a website is registered I would know where it is domiciled and therefore if people are illegally harmed by these sites they could take them to a Lebanese court.

Would content on social media websites be subject to these regulations?
No, absolutely not. This has nothing to do with it and you cannot control this.

Is LIRA dead in the water now?
It is put aside for now as there is a draft law that concerns all of the media and it is being studied within a media commission at the parliament. Definitely it is better to have everything within a greater code, but my idea was to address this loophole quickly. In any case it is optional. A media code in parliament in my opinion will take many years to pass, during which time we will still have the loophole.

With so many media barons represented in parliament, will this law pass?
It will but the questions are ‘if’ and ‘how’. It is so political. This is why I prepared my draft law to be quick.

On Twitter recently, you said you believed in “absolute freedom of speech in any blog or any media” but later tweeted “bloggers in some circumstances should refrain from telling the whole truth for the sake of the public and the community.” There seems to be an inherent contradiction here.
It is not a contradiction. I believe fully in freedom of speech. However, in some professions, such as lawyers or doctors, there is a ‘code of ontology’.

But doctors and lawyers are responsible to their patient and client. Who are journalists responsible to protect?
You can say whatever you want as long as what you say does not harm the public interest.

Who determines that?
There must be a code of conduct for journalists and the media sector but in Lebanon this does not exist. I am pushing for such a code.

Enforceable by law?
Definitely not. It should be by the media’s own adherence.

Most journalists don’t have access to the editor’s syndicate and there is no union or syndicate for broadcast journalists. What are you doing to formalize this profession and to ensure journalists can enjoy proper professional support and protection?
The syndicate was presided over by the same chairman for the past 50 years [Melhem Karam]. To join the syndicate was something pending his will. These days, however, we should not only leave the syndicate open for the ones who benefited from the time of Melhem Karam. Now we should open the syndicate for all journalists.

Does the ministry have a role to play in that process?
The ministry has a moral role and I am trying to push it.  I am going further, to have the syndicate become a federation, because now it does not include the broadcast journalists. We want everyone in the media profession included, such as the photographers and the sound engineers… I want to have a federation that is one body that is united and therefore stronger.

This is what you would like to see but have you seen any movement in that direction?
It is too early to say but the new syndicate was voted three weeks ago and I am pushing very hard in this direction.

Chapter 10 of the Audio Visual Law aims to limit political and corporate control of the media but is patently not enforced. Can the ministry do anything to curb the increasingly partisan and sectarian tone of the Lebanese media?
Unfortunately not, for political reasons I can’t even impose penalties against any defaulting media — that is to say media that is not in line with their conditions of contract, and unfortunately they are all breaching the law. However, I can re-equilibrate by improving the public media.

Previous cabinets wanted to protect their own [political] and religious media. No cabinet dared to strengthen the public media. They neglected it. I am saying it is now time to reinforce Tele and Radio Liban to give them their federative role.

This takes money. Where is this going to come from?
The government could get the money even if it will take a lot. I don’t have today the intention to be in competition with the private media, especially in television. But Tele Liban could have a niche where it could succeed, for example in education or local output. Commercial stations would not go there because it would not generate much advertising. Tele Liban’s news gets good audiences. We are around 4 percent, which  in my opinion is good. We also have the national news agency, which has correspondents all over Lebanon. We are the first to broadcast the news but the majority of the media takes the news from the NNA and then do not credit it.

Lebanon’s predominance in Arab media has dwindled in the face of huge budgets and assertive media coming from the Gulf and other areas of the region. On a policy level can anything be done to ensure Lebanon maintains a prime position within the regional media?
Yes. I hope to have a Beirut media center. At the Dubai media center the majority of the workers there are Lebanese.  The idea is to have a media city, or cities, in Lebanon where you can incorporate the studios and the newspaper buildings. I am confident we can attract these Lebanese ex-pats back to Lebanon.

Many of the TV licenses expire this year.  Can we expect new terms of contract or will the status quo continue?
Unfortunately the status quo will remain.

Why unfortunately?
Because everyone knows there is a breach in the conditions of contract, and unfortunately for political reasons nobody is being penalized for these breaches.

 

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