Daily Star - Womens Council Hits Out At Immoral Tv Shows

Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Racy and objectionable content on local television stations continued to draw fire on Thursday, even after government authorities promised to see outlets tone things down. The Lebanese Women’s Council strongly condemned certain television shows it deemed “of a low media, cultural and moral level.”
The council was referring to comedy shows that depended on “low levels of entertainment and immoral jokes.” It said such shows were a bad influence on Lebanese society, particularly on young people.
In a statement, the group also blamed the National Audiovisual Media Council [NAMC], the Information Ministry’s Censorship Committee and local television stations for the problem.
The council urged government censorship bodies to step in and ensure that audiovisual media and internet websites halt the objectionable programs and content.
For its part, the International Catholic Press Union in Lebanon also condemned the phenomenon of supposedly immoral programming, singling out OTV’s weekly program “LOL” for censure.
On Monday, the NAMC held an emergency session on “LOL” and other programs, after receiving a number of complaints about the content of jokes told on the show and other programs.
The union thanked the NAMC for its efforts to end the commotion, but said a wide-ranging revision of the relevant legislation was required. It said the judiciary remained the proper authority for deciding whether certain programs were violating the law.
The union said that religious figures should not be outside the scope of permitted criticism, but added that freedom of opinion and expression didn’t permit the practice of insulting others. – The Daily Star