BEIRUT: Lebanon is a liberal Middle East country with unfettered Internet access, but state censorship is also rife on any topics that touch upon Israel or sensitive issues such as religion.
Oscar-winning films such as Schindler s List, the music of late violinist Yehudi Menuhin, the songs of Enrico Macias are banned. The list of artists and their works deemed to be inappropriate is long.
There has been ruthless censorship in Lebanon for decades, using absurd criteria and under the pretext of national security, said Bassam Eid, production manager at movie distributors Circuit Empire.
Hollywood stars including Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman have long been banned for their perceived support for Jews or because they were in a film directed by a Jew as Lebanon scrupulously applied an Arab League blacklist boycotting Israel.
The most recent production to be censored concerned not Judaism but Islam, however. The Oscar-nominated Persepolis which annoyed Tehran for its critical portrayal of the Islamic revolution was briefly banned by Beirut recently.
I know that with the Internet censorship may appear to be ridiculous, but we ban works damaging to religion because it is such a sensitive topic in a multi-confessional state, General Wafiq Jizzini, head of the general security department at the interior ministry, told AFP.
Censorship is applied in Lebanon if a work is thought to incite religious dissent, damage morals or state security or contribute to Israeli propaganda. Sensitivities must be handled carefully, said Jizzini, who implied that he comes under pressure from the country s all-powerful religious leaders.
Otherwise they d make it very difficult. Imagine if we allowed cartoons of Prophet Mohamed or the Dutch film Fitna !
Far-right MP Geert Wilders earned worldwide attention after releasing the 17-minute anti-Islam film Fitna, or Discord in Arabic, on the Internet in March.
The Da Vinci Code – both the book and the film – were also pulled after the church in Lebanon intervened, saying the work impinged on Christian beliefs.
Lebanese society is too steeped in religion to accept attacks on the sacred, said one bookshop manager, speaking under cover of anonymity.
In March, a special issue of the French magazine Le Point on Israel was seized. Often publications arrive with pages torn out because of an article about the beauty of a town in Israel, for example.
Some works linked to Israel are available, however.
These include the novels of Israeli writer Amos Oz and the work Israel: Etat de Choc (Israel: Shock State) by France s Frederic Pons about the 2006 war against the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Such and such a film can t be brought into the country, but because of satellite dishes even kids are able to see it, said Eid.
Music does not escape either. About 80 percent of Death Metal is seized because of anti-Christ content, according to one record store owner in Beirut who asked not to be named.
To ban the Israeli Philharmonic is understandable, but not top world violinist Jascha Heifetz who s Jewish but not Israeli. Even so both Daniel Barenboim and Gilad Atzmon are okay because they re seen to be anti-Zionist!
Some Lebanese works are also affected. A satirical play about the country s 1975-1990 civil war by Rabih Mroue was banned last year before later being allowed.
Jizzini denied that Persepolis was banned because he is close to Hezbollah which is backed by Iran, saying that a work by Lebanese writer Roger Akl was also censored for attacking the Saudi regime that supports the government.
He said he wanted to be rid of this poisoned chalice, saying that censorship should come under the ministry of culture, not interior.
However Culture Minister Tareq Mitri wants to abolish what he called an outdated practice.
A draft law is in the works that would abolish censorship and set up an independent committee of wise men instead, he said
