Don’t Call It a “Media Law”, Call it a “Freedom of Expression Law”.

There’s a report in the Daily Star on the importance of having a new Lebanese “media law” to “protect journalists and journalism”.

Such a law is very important as the report makes very clear, but why stop at journalists? What if some regular Lebanese voices off on Twitter or Facebook and got arrested as a result. Doesn’t she deserve equal protection?

What about people like me who write regularly to thousands of readers online? I am not a “journalist” but I am equally bound to annoy someone sometime. Don’t I deserve protection? Am I chopped liver?

The first step in making a “new” media law is to stop calling it a media law. It should be a broad, strong a law designed to protect the freedom of expression in general.