Vivian Haddad wrote in Asharq Al-Awsat:
The case of the journalist, Dima Sadiq, interacted in the Lebanese circles, following the issuance of a Lebanese criminal court ruling to imprison her for a year and accusing her of committing the crime of “inciting sectarian strife, libel and slander”, in a lawsuit filed by the “Free Patriotic Movement” headed by Representative Gebran Bassil, against the background of A tweet dating back to 2020, in which Sadiq described the “current” as a “Nazi.”
The news of the verdict against Dima Sadiq topped social media, and turned into a public opinion issue, and its frequencies reached the Parliament’s Media and Communications Committee, where its chairman, Representative Ibrahim Al-Moussawi, called, after a meeting of the committee, the judiciary to “examine the justice and integrity envisaged in all rulings issued by it.” without favouritism, courtesy or politicization.” He said, “We always emphasize the issue of media freedoms and freedom of expression as sacred freedom, but it must also be responsible freedom, not going towards hate speech or racist speech.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, MP Marwan Hamadeh said, “No recommendation was issued by the Media and Communications Committee,” but he pointed out that this issue “is open to Lebanese public opinion, and perhaps Arab and international opinion.” He added, “We will continue to raise the case of colleague Dima Sadiq and reject this arbitrary decision against her.”
The Lebanese judiciary had sentenced Dima Sadeq to a year in prison, a fine of 110 million Lebanese pounds ($1,200), and stripping her of her civil rights, in a lawsuit filed by the “Free Patriotic Movement” in 2020, in which Sadeq was accused of slander and defamation.
The Editors’ Syndicate issued a statement, in which it recorded a principled position represented in its absolute rejection of custodial penalties against any journalist who committed a publishing violation, whether in print, audio or electronic means. It stressed its principled position that no journalist may appear in opinion cases before any judicial body, except for the Publications Court.
The Syndicate stressed “the need for the defendant to appeal the verdict issued against her and for the Court of Appeal to correct the error that occurred by referring the case against the plaintiff to the Criminal Court,” and demanded that the case be returned to the Publications Court.
The President of the Press Editors Syndicate, Joseph Al-Qusaifi, told Asharq Al-Awsat, “The Court of Appeal must look at this issue from a different angle, so that it has two options. Either dismiss the case or refer it to the Penal Code.
Al-Qusaifi stressed that “the process of counting the reference for accountability in the Publications Court is the natural matter and the logical context for every lawsuit brought against a journalist for practicing his profession.”
For his part, lawyer, human rights activist and former deputy, Ghassan Mukheiber, considered that what happened with Dima Sadiq was a “precedent in itself.” He explained to Asharq Al-Awsat: “It is a precedent, yes, because even with crimes of slander and defamation, the courts were content with financial fines, even if the law permitted imprisonment. There is a long and ongoing dispute over the validity of the ordinary criminal courts and the publications court. There is also a problem about the jurisdiction of the criminal courts or the publications court about how to apply its rulings related to writings through social media and all opinion crimes.
Mukheiber, who did not want to go into the merits of the case, believed that the importance of this proposal lies in separating the issue of impermissibility of imprisonment for crimes of opinion, even if libel and defamation were committed, which is a crime, and the judiciary should review the courts in it. He emphasized that he meets the opinion that “slander and defamation” can only lead to his punishment leading to financial fines, while exercising the right of response.
2023-07-13 03:17:04
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