The broadcasts in Lebanon have completely changed their pro-revolution rhythm of 2019. Shortly after the new year, the protesters all over Lebanon resumed their revolutionary actions.
They are still protesting outside government institutions, judicial institutions, banks, the house of the assigned Prime Minister, and in their usual revolutionary squares, and some are still blocking the roads.
If you thought that the revolution is dead, or the protesters grew tired and went home, this is absolutely not true.
The revolution is still very much alive and going strong. Sit-ins and movements continue to be organized, but the media is just not covering any of it.
If someone “grew tired and went home,” it’s certainly not the revolutionaries.
The revolution in Lebanon is being obscured by the media, without any justification or logical reason. Whether it is by carelessness or under political pressure, it doesn’t matter.
The fact is painfully there that they are not supporting the people, which are their own viewers after all. In such a critical situation as a revolution, it is said: “Who isn’t with me is against me.”
At least that’s the sentiment of the people now towards the stance of the TV stations.
Many of the TV stations that adopted a pro-revolution path since day one, even launching new revolutionary TV programs, have now ceased to bring light to the people’s demands and the acts of oppression and injustice brought upon them.
This is not the only form of suppression that the Lebanese revolutionaries have been experiencing lately. The streets of Lebanon have been witnessing police brutality like never before.
Protesters, activists, and pro-revolution journalists and media influencers are getting arrested.
Tents on the sit-in squares of the revolution are being removed by force, and many other incidents we see on social media, but not on television anymore.
But if you know Lebanese people, you’ll know that this will never bring their motivation down. On the contrary, it fuels their determination.
They know that the use of force rises from fear and desperation of having lost control. The state seems to have reached that stage of awareness that the revolution is going nowhere, not until they, the officials, do.
Many are now questioning the importance of televisions’ broadcasts and the revolution’s dependence on them, saying that they have a more powerful alternative: social media.
Some revolutionary groups on Facebook and Instagram are encouraging people to ignore back the TV stations and focus on transmitting their messages, voices, and coverage of events through social media.
You Stink (طلعت ريحتكم) civic movement posted the following on its Facebook page:
Amid the media blackout, it is our duty to get the revolutionaries’ movements that are happening in all regions through.
Please send your organized movements to our facebook page so we can share them.
With or without TV coverage, the revolution is still ongoing. So don’t rely on the media and the TV stations.
It is not only that the TV stations aren’t covering the protests, but they are replacing them with interviews and speeches by the Lebanese politicians.
A few days ago, for example, Al Jadeed broadcasted a 4 hours long interview with Lebanon’s most controversial politician, Gebran Bassil.
This interview was boycotted by the Lebanese people, most of whom went down to Al-Jadeed building and protested at the entrance.
Through the megaphone, the protesters expressed their disappointment in this specific TV station, which they have always deemed it a supporter of the people, of their rights, and of their civic movements.
During this protest, they also made it clear that the time when politicians talked and people listened is over. Now, it is time for the people to talk and the politicians to listen.
It’s not like the people were to trust or believe anything the politicians say now, so there’s no point in getting anymore their justifications or points of view. What was done is done. This is now the era of the Lebanese people.
What matters the most right now is that all the Lebanese people who really care to save the country stick together; journalists, revolutionaries, anchors, and all others.
It is a must because there is no way to go back to where Lebanon was for decades. We can’t allow it. The shame will be on us.
We get the medias’ policy of getting both points of view across, but the people who were or are now in authority had 30 years of sharing their “points of view” with nothing done for the people while the people were left voiceless.
Meaningless talking, empty promises, and deceits; nothing has changed. Only the people have, and they demand to be heard, to be heeded in their demands, and to be given their democratic rights.
The Lebanese people are just now getting started with raising their voices, and it is the media’s responsibility to be truthful to its mission and get these voices through for everyone to hear.
It is important to stop giving the politicians a right over the people in getting a platform all for themselves as if they and their voices matter more.
People in the streets simply have more honest and important things to say. They are the nation. They matter. Lebanon matters.