Lebanon: First Threatened Voice · Global Voices
Layal Al Khatib

Lebanon has been known and envied in the MENA region for its free cyberspace. Well not anymore since March has marked Lebanon's first cyber censhorship incident.
On March 15, Lebanese blogger and journalist Khodor Salameh or “jou3an“(Hungry in Arabic) wrote a post[Ar] on his blog where he criticized the Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. A few days later, he was called for an interrogation by the Lebanese security forces, where they threatened him with being prosecuted for defamation if he doesn't change his tone, close the blog or write poetry exclusively.
Lebanese Blogger and Journalist Khodor Salameh(aka Jou3an)
The Lebanese bloggers were united, despite their opposite political opinions, and showed their support to Khodor -whether they agreed with what he said or not. Here are their reactions below:
Hrammal supported[Ar] Khodor by saying “We are all Khodor”:
Mowatin Shahhath(or a beggar citizen) started his post[Ar] by quoting the Lebanese constitution which clearly preserves the right of free speech for Lebanese citizens. He added:
Ninar also showed his support in his post[Ar], where he addressed the officials saying:
Hashemite accused the Lebanese government of being a rotten system. He said[Ar]:
Liliane noticed how the date Khodor was interrogated, coincided with the March18 campaign, (which was born after an Iranian blogger “Omid Reza Mir Sayafi” died in prison). She added:
Regardless of whether I agree with the fellow blogger Khodor, all I can say is, I hope what was my pride two weeks ago, remains my pride and doesn't fall into the trap of a mindless, oppressive, unjust and illogical system.
On the other hand, Lebanese blogger Rany disagreed with what Khodor said but still refused the threat. He said in his latest post The lettuce theory“:
Although I actually disagree with the blogger, this way of dealing with him or any other blogger is totally refused and totally useless, and to whoever decided to investigate with the blogger about what he mentioned I would like to say come on grow up, he's just a guy writing on his blog why are you making a fuss out of it? Lots of people agree with him and lots of others disagree that's the reality of Lebanon and you can't change that by making him change his tone.
Blogger and journalist “Hanibaael“, published an official announcement[Ar] on behalf of the Lebanese Bloggers Group supporting Khodor:
Layal was disappointed that Lebanon has joined the country list at said:
Lebanon, Welcome to Threatened Voices!
Furthermore, Egyptian blogger Zeinobia was in complete shock when she heard the news. She said:
Is this new Lebanon !!?? Is the “Freedom, sovereignty and independence” new Lebanon !!?? It is a shock , a real shock !!??
Is this the start of cyber censhorship in Lebanon or just a single incident? Follow Lebanon's entry on Threatened Voices to remain updated.