The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A conference on freedom of expression in universities organized Tuesday by the Media Against Violence watchdog, turned out to be a public defense of a student affiliated with the Lebanese Forces, who had been expelled from his university.
The conference, “Universities: Places of freedom of expression and dialogue or of oppression and repression?” – held at the Press Club in Beirut – touched only briefly on the general topic of free expression before focusing on the student.
“The Lebanese Canadian University’s arbitrary decision to kick out the head of LF committee Michael Mezher was done for purely political reasons,” said Charles Jabbour, a member of Media Against Violence.
Mezher, who also spoke at the conference, was expelled for organizing a sit-in at the university to protest the administration’s repeated delaying of the student committee elections.
Jabbour said that the fact that the university had conditioned Mezher’s return on him refraining from political activities at the university “reminds us of the time of Syrian tutelage.”
“Students have the right to defend their beliefs and be politically active,” he added.
Kataeb (Phalange) MP Nadim Gemayel, who was “shocked” when he heard Mezher’s story, said that “without students’ political actions on March 14, 2005, none of the victories would have been achieved.” He also stressed the role of students in engaging in politics and called for universities to frame students’ political activities to prevent them from becoming “chaotic or barbaric.”
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