Lebanese Ministry of Information
Information Ministry has concluded its amendments to the media project law currently present at the House Administration and Justice Committee, following Minister of Information, Dr. Manal Abdel Samad Najd’s request for a grace period to introduce amendments to the project law in a manner that honors international standards for media liberties and the international law for human rights.
Minister Abdel Samad notified yesterday the Chairman of the House Information and Communications Committee, MP Hussein Hajj Hassan, ahead of the Committee’s scheduled meeting, that the Ministry’s version has been completed.
The Minister presented the Chairman of the House Administration and Justice Committee with the amended version in an informal manner, in order to set an appointment at a later time, to discuss the amendments introduced by the Ministry of Information.
MP Hajj Hassan asked the Minister to separate the part related to organizing electronic websites from the whole project law so as to expedite its study.
However, Abdel Samad expressed reservations in this regard, explicating that she was against “this separation, given that the electronic media is not a sector in itself, but rather a part of the total media sector… and the Ministry has introduced amendments to the law as a whole, for the welfare of the entire media sector.”
The Minister also indicated that the work of the Ministry of Information does not stop here but rather efforts will be exerted to follow up on this project so that it is adopted as soon as possible.
The committee branching from the Ministry of Information was keen to introduce fundamental amendments to the project law, rendering the amended version in line with the international standards for media liberties and human rights.
The House Information and Communications Committee, has endorsed yesterday, in the presence of Abdel Samad, a draft law aimed at allowing 462 contractual employees at the Ministry of Information to benefit from the system of retirement and state employees’ cooperative coverage, thanks to the Minister’s unremitting efforts that this longstanding file has taken its path.
NNA
