The Daily Star - Employees work to republish Al-Bayraq newspaper - September 09, 2011

BEIRUT: A month after the daily Al-Bayraq and three other magazines stopped being published, employees of the newspaper vowed to continue their work.
“After Bayraq’s publishing stopped … daily meetings were held at the editor-in-chief’s office among the employees to discuss how to regain their rights, after the two owners left Lebanon for Paris,” said a statement released by Antoine Chidiac, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper.
Al-Bayraq was founded by Karam Karam, the father of the renowned Lebanese journalist Melhem Karam, who went on to acquire several other weekly publications like the Arabic-language Al-Hawadeth, the French-language La Revue du Liban and English-language Monday Morning magazine.
The magazines and Al-Bayraq newspaper were published by One Thousand and One Nights publishing house, which was owned by Melhem Karam.
Melhem Karam, who was also the president of the Journalists Union, passed away last year.
Shortly following the first anniversary of his death, the magazines, along with Al-Bayraq, closed down in August after two of the late Melhem Karam’s heirs refused to fund them.
However, according to the statement released by Chidiac’s office, Thaer Karam, the third heir of the publication house, is working toward restarting the paper.
“We appreciate all the efforts and sacrifices made by Thaer Karam,” said the statement.
The statement also said that Thaer Karam has paid the salaries for all the employees of One Thousand and One Nights publishing house for almost ten months. “Thaer Karam alone paid the salaries and the expenses of the organization until the publishing of the newspaper and the magazines stopped last month,” the statement added.
According to the statement, participants at the meeting agreed to work with Thaer Karam to save Al-Bayraq from permanent closure.