A prevalent strategy now extant in the Middle East is governmental attack on news media. We’ve recently commented on Egypt’s prolonged detention of Al-Ajazeera reporter, Mahmoud Hussein.
Now we see the same phenomenon elsewhere. The Lebanese Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the editor of Ad-Diyar, Charles Ayoub, for insulting the King of Saudi Arabia. Not long ago the Attorney General also filed against a local TV personality for stating that the Saudi Arabia Crown Prince should “eat less.” (see https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/lebanese-journalist-faces-prison-time-insulting-saudi-king/).
Ayoub was also arrested in the UAE on similar charges.
There is nothing new in the Middle East about trying to silence the press. But here we have the attacks occurring across national boundaries. Do these episodes reflect strange alliances, for example, Lebanon with Saudi Arabia, or simply fear of the Saudis?
And as this stuff spreads in the Middle East, are we due to see more of it in the US?
