❊ How To Read Today’s Daily Star’s Editorial On The Proposed Media Law

The Daily Star:

We heartily welcome Information Minister Tarek Mitri’s call on Tuesday for the creation of a comprehensive media law in Lebanon.

Translation: “Hey guys, here’s our chance to get money from the government.”

We have seen the merger of text, sound and image across a variety of platforms, and yet in Lebanon we still have discrete — and contradictory — laws for published, audiovisual and electronic media. Indeed, the reality has surpassed the legal norms of Lebanon years ago.

Translation “We are being screwed by the internet and we blame the government for it.”

Mitri is highly qualified intellectually for the endeavor of introducing new legislation, but he is also politically astute enough to know that he would have to secure support from both sides of Lebanon’s political divide for such an initiative.

( Kissing A** )

the state can lead this process of creating the environment to foster the growth of our news media. [..] The new media system, meanwhile, does not adhere to the strict old delineation between private and public sectors; a welter of issues surrounds the necessary reinvention of the media’s business model

Translation: The government should protect newspapers by subsidizing them and if necessary making things difficult for competing new media”

Needless to say. That’s a whole load of kool aid. We are seeing this all over the world with newspapers try to grapple with the fact that they’re losing relevance in today’s world. Also, the Daily star is not suffering because the government is not “fostering the right environment”, it’s suffering because it is a lousy newspaper with a lousy website and lousy management. Don’t blame others for your own failures.

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