The draft Media Law has been placed on the agenda of the Lebanese Parliament's General Assembly for Wednesday and Thursday, 15 and 16 July 2026, following nearly 16 years of deliberation. 

The draft law includes key reforms, most notably the abolition of prison sentences and criminal prosecutions for publication-related offences, replacing them with civil liability. The only exception concerns incitement to hatred, violence, and discrimination, subject to the safeguards established under the Rabat Plan of Action. These safeguards require consideration of: the social and political context in which the speech was made; the speaker's status or influence over the audience; the existence of intent to incite violence or discrimination; the content and form of the speech, including whether it was direct and provocative; the extent of the speech's dissemination and the nature of the audience reached; and the likelihood of harm, namely whether there is a reasonable probability that the speech would lead to the prohibited outcome. These criteria constitute essential safeguards to ensure that criminal liability remains limited to the most serious cases of incitement and to prevent overly broad interpretations or misuse of the law to restrict freedom of expression. 

However, the Joint Parliamentary Committees introduced a new paragraph (b) to Article 104, criminalizing the "fabrication of false information and the dissemination of false and harmful news" with prison sentences of up to three years, with the possibility of harsher penalties, including hard labour, in certain cases. The Coalition strongly condemns this amendment. 

This provision effectively re-criminalizes information-sharing through vague and ill-defined language, contradicting both the essence and the underlying philosophy of the draft law, which seeks to shift from criminal to civil liability in publication-related matters. 

These provisions open the door to arbitrary prosecutions of journalists, media outlets, and anyone exercising their right to freedom of expression. They also create a means of circumventing the abolition of criminal defamation by allowing authorities to pursue individuals under allegations of disseminating "false and harmful news." 

Combating false and misleading information should not rely on criminalization or custodial penalties. Instead, it requires strengthening the transparency of public institutions, guaranteeing access to information, promoting media literacy and critical thinking, and supporting a free and independent press capable of verifying information. 

The Coalition for Freedoms in Lebanon calls on parliamentary blocs and Members of Parliament to remove paragraph (b) from Article 104 and preserve the core reform embodied in the draft law by maintaining civil liability for publication-related offences, while limiting criminal sanctions solely to incitement to hatred, violence, and discrimination, in accordance with the safeguards set out in the Rabat Plan of Action. 

After sixteen years of discussion, the Media Law must represent a genuine step toward strengthening freedom of the media and freedom of expression, rather than becoming a vehicle for re-criminalizing information-sharing under new labels. 

It is worth recalling that, on 16 September 2025, 14 Lebanese and international human rights organizations, including members of the Freedom of Expression Coalition, issued a joint statement calling on the Lebanese Parliament to ensure that the draft Media Law fully guarantees the right to freedom of expression. 

Their recommendations included the decriminalization of defamation, libel, insult, and criticism of public officials; a prohibition on pretrial detention for expression-related offences; and the removal of excessive restrictions on the establishment of media outlets. 

Signatories:

The Lebanese Center for Human Rights

Union of Journalists in Lebanon

Maharat Foundation

SMEX

LADE

CEDAR Center for LEgal Studies

Legal Agenda