· May, 2013

Stories about Lebanon from May, 2013

Lebanon: Blogger Beaten for Taking Photos

  14 May 2013

Lebanese blogger Habib Battah narrates how he was held against his consent, forced to delete photographs of ruins from his phone camera and repeatedly assaulted in this post on the Beirut Report. When he reported the case to his local police station, the officers in charge said it was his...

Lebanese Police Arrest Four During Gay Club Raid

  8 May 2013

‘Ghost', a gay-friendly club in Dekwaneh, Matn, Lebanon, was raided by 12 policemen under the order of Antoine Chakhtoura, the municipality's head. Customers were reportedly bullied out of the club and four individuals were arrested in the incident. Online, netizens expressed their outrage.

Lebanon's Happy Offshore Oil Billboards

Qifa Nabki writes: “Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water has launched a new [billboard] campaign promoting the benefits of off-shore oil exploration for the average citizen. The ads contain shots of smiling people aside captions like: “My children and I are staying in Lebanon“ or “I’m going back to work in Lebanon!“”...

Lebanon's Migrant Workers Mark May Day

  7 May 2013

KAFA (Enough Racism and Violence) posted [Ar] that the migrant domestic workers in Beirut celebrated Labor's Day by holding a demonstration in which they demanded an end to the Kafala System [Sponsorship System]. The demonstration culminated with a gathering in a public park where the workers shared different aspects from their...

Social Media and Sarcasm in Lebanon

  7 May 2013

The Eleventh Room posted some funny tweets about Beirut’s first Social Media Awards event. They said the Social Media Awards hashtag #SMABeirut was going strong on Twitter days after the event. They added: “As we were going through them, we couldn’t help but laugh out loud at some pretty sarcastic/hilarious ones....

Lebanon's First Social Media Awards

  7 May 2013

Najib at Blog Baladi won the “Blog of the Year” award in Beirut's first Social Media Awards event. He wrote this post about the ceremony in general with comments on some aspects of its organization. He also includes comments about the attitudes of some of the attendees such as those of celebrity Haifa Wehbe, among others.