Marcel Ghanem presents the program (Time Has Come / Facebook)
The “Sar Time” program, presented by Lebanese Marcel Ghanem, on the local MTV channel, saw a bitter quarrel among the public on Thursday evening, including clashes of hands, shootings and injuries.
The dispute began with a tense atmosphere in the studio between MP Wadah Sadek, on the one hand, and MP Charbel Maroun, who belongs to Free Patriotic Movementled by the deputy Gebran BassilOn the other hand, his supporters. Verbal confrontations between the current audience and its opponents turned into a stampede and conflict, before security men intervened.
As the episode resumed, the controversy moved to the canal’s outer courtyard, where a large number of supporters of the movement, known as the “old guard”, joined and a confrontation with canal security took place. , first there were shootings, which required the intervention of the army and security forces, while numerous wounded.
Ghanem said during the episode that “the cameras and some microphones were stolen” and that the studio, which was vandalized and broken, was “treated with malice”. He added that what happened was “fabricated and prepared” before it went out in the air, as she said, by entrusting the incident to the security services.
And the “MTV” channel broadcast a video clip of a woman who was in the audience, speaking from the studio and saying on the phone to one of the people: “Miss (enter) quickly”, coinciding with the incident.
This kicked off the forms in the audience yesterday on a program #It_time pic.twitter.com/88VbbD4W9c
– Fouad Khreiss (@fouadkhreiss) November 4, 2022
The channel said: “It was clear that those who call themselves the old guard deliberately prepared for the problem that occurred in a study, the time has come and it could almost cause casualties, and it was clear that these people want chaos. . some of them threatened to do so through social media, and then directly threatened the station afterwards. “. And the channel announced, in a statement today, Friday, that it “will refuse until further notice to receive this dead audience in a program that has become time, following what it did yesterday, despite allowing it to express repeatedly his opinion, which is evident following the episode, provided that the Guests belonging to the current remain welcome to express their positions and the positions of their party, which is what the channel cares about, regardless of the abusive campaigns to which is exposed.
Representative Waddah Sadiq confirmed via Twitter that he had “nothing to do” with what happened. And he tweeted: “The problem occurred between the security of MTV and some spectators cursing the guests.”
On the other hand, supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement accuse the program of spreading sedition and incitement against them and of insulting the “October 13 Martyrs”.
On October 13, 1990, the Syrian regime’s army attacked the presidential palace in Lebanon, killing dozens of Lebanese soldiers. Michel AounAt the time he was the head of the military government, and some of his collaborators, at the French embassy, asking for political asylum, and also asked the army to take orders from former president Emile Lahoud. Aoun left for Paris, before returning in 2005, knowing that it is a story divided between citizens and political forces, amid the accusations of escape and abandonment of his responsibilities in Aoun.
And in light of the political solidarity received by the “Sar Time” program, with its presenter Marcel Ghanem, the Lebanese Press Editors’ Union condemned what happened “from the pandemonium following the political tension, which resulted in an attack on the station and its property on its campus, causing injuries and injuries. “
And he stated in a statement that he “strongly condemns this attack, its justifications and its causes, because it completely contradicts the obligation to preserve the sanctity of media institutions”, and called on the Lebanese judiciary to “get their hands on this serious , condemned and deplorable incident and conduct a swift and transparent investigation to uncover the circumstances and arrest the perpetrators. ” and its participants.
He reiterated his appeal to “political forces and the media to take into account the general situation in this delicate phase of the life of the nation and show the highest levels of national responsibility”. The Trade Union Council will hold an extraordinary meeting next week to “discuss the role of the media at this stage”.
