{"id":12629,"date":"2021-09-04T15:09:44","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T18:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=12629"},"modified":"2021-09-04T15:38:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-04T18:38:03","slug":"press-freedom-what-happened-to-lebanons-traditional-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2021\/09\/04\/press-freedom-what-happened-to-lebanons-traditional-hospitality\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Freedom: What happened to Lebanon&#8217;s traditional hospitality?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/LebanonWorrisome-1024x288.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12630\" width=\"526\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/LebanonWorrisome-1024x288.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/LebanonWorrisome-300x84.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/LebanonWorrisome-768x216.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/LebanonWorrisome-1200x337.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 526px) 85vw, 526px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>We learned from<em> Reuters<\/em> today that <em>&#8220;Lebanon<\/em> <em>deported a Reuters correspondent after questioning him on  arrival at Beirut airport at the start of a reporting assignment last  month, detaining him overnight before putting him on a flight to Jordan<\/em>.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This <em>Reuters <\/em>senior correspondent is Mr. Suleiman al-Khalidi from Jordan. Can you imagine? The Lebanese authorities &#8220;<em>took him aside for questioning and asked him to surrender his company laptop computer and mobile phone<\/em>&#8220;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Mr. al-Khalidi refused to hand his material, they transferred him to a deportation centre and sent him back to Jordan the next day (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/lebanon-deported-reuters-journalist-after-questioning-2021-09-03\/\">https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/lebanon-deported-reuters-journalist-after-questioning-2021-09-03\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Reuters<\/em> asked Lebanon to reverse the decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To conclude this post, it is worrisome to see the official Lebanon (i.e., with its powerful forces) treating reporters in this shocking manner. Sadly, such stories are becoming more frequent (Bambi has older posts on the topic). It is not surprising then to read that this tiny, bankrupt yet (always) beautiful country has been recently ranked &#8220;<em>#107 out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index<\/em>&#8220;. Sadly, the limitation on press freedom is also observed worldwide, not just in Lebanon (including Canada, mind you). However, the attack on press freedom\/freedom of expression is acutely alarming in Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-961\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"yg2q36vZUQ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.the961.com\/lebanon-rank-2021-world-press-freedom-index\/\">Lebanon Ranked #107 In The 2021 World Press Freedom Index<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Lebanon Ranked #107 In The 2021 World Press Freedom Index&#8221; &#8212; The961\" src=\"https:\/\/www.the961.com\/lebanon-rank-2021-world-press-freedom-index\/embed\/#?secret=yg2q36vZUQ\" data-secret=\"yg2q36vZUQ\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We learned from Reuters today that &#8220;Lebanon deported a Reuters correspondent after questioning him on arrival at Beirut airport at the start of a reporting assignment last month, detaining him overnight before putting him on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12633,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12629\/revisions\/12633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}