Amr diab
Beirut – “politics”
The concert of the Egyptian artist, Amr Diab, in Beirut, sparked controversy due to the rejectionist behavior that preceded and followed it on more than one level. The Minister of Environment in the caretaker government, Nasser Yassin, wrote on the “X” platform: “This morning, the public road leading to the place of Amr Diab’s concert. Beirut waterfront and randomly dumped waste thereafter. As for the inside, there is no problem.”
He added, “We had drawn the attention of the Beirut Municipality to oblige the organizing company to remove the waste and clean the place at its own expense.”
And he continued: “Therefore, the governor of Beirut must issue general hygiene records against violators, according to Article 25 of the decree maintaining public cleanliness, which stipulates that the person who presents a violation of throwing waste, papers, peels, empty cans, etc., or leaving them in front of his shop or house, shall be punished.”
And he concluded: “The company organizing the party is obligated to clean the site and the adjacent streets at its own expense, and to bear the cost of treatment and landfill under the principle of “the polluter pays” as stipulated in the Solid Waste Management Law, and to show evidence of that to the municipality.
As for the head of the Lebanese Press Editors Syndicate, Joseph Al-Qusaifi, he rejected “the heresy that the promoter of the artist Diab’s concert, which he revived in Lebanon, came up with by sending him a pledge to journalists and media professionals who wish to cover the concert, under which they undertake not to criticize or publish what contradicts the opinion of the contractor, the artist, or both, and to give the right to them. By deleting the article, given that this pledge contradicts freedom of thought, opinion, speech, and writing, but rather with freedom as a general concept, and female colleagues must reject it and not sign it, even if the matter leads to not covering this artistic event, and we hope that this unsuccessful and rejected measure by journalists and media professionals will not disturb it. Because it affects them at the heart of their profession and their right to write and express their opinion freely.” The Press Club also issued the following statement, “The media community in Lebanon was surprised that the organizers of Amr Diab’s concert put conditions on the journalists who wanted to cover his concert in Beirut, to say the least, that they are inconsistent with the freedom of opinion and expression that we are fighting for its survival, and it strikes a show.” The wall of the Lebanese constitution and laws that enshrine freedom of expression, and therefore we demand a public apology from the artist Amr Diab and from the concert organizers to the Lebanese press, and we demand the Minister of Information Ziyad Al-Makari to take a position on what happened in order to prevent the recurrence of such practices that have nothing to do with Lebanese culture.
Maryam Al-Bassam, director of news and political programs at Al-Jadeed channel, commented on the “X” platform, on the publication of the Minister of Environment in the caretaker government, Nasser Yassin, and wrote: “The effects of the party are supposed to be removed by the organizers and contractors.”
And she continued: “This must remove the camel with what it carried. Where was the municipality from holding the ceremony? And since she fell short of her duties, the judiciary must write records against her, as a token of the eyes of her new president.
And she concluded: “Two moons, not your eyes. With you, the Minister of Environment, to fine the organizers.”
