Joseph Samahah, my favorite Arab columnist, was in Dubai at a media forum. He said this about the state of the media: "On the eve of Hariri's assassination, there were no taboos on the Lebanese press overall. The evidence was in the press serving as a platform for the Syrian opposition, and its writers who published heavily in the various Lebanese newspapers. Undoubtedly, the press breathed a sigh of relief when with the Syrian exit [from Lebanon]. But it can't be said that the withdrawal of the Syrian forces constituted a watershed for press freedoms in Lebanon. At the same time, a new kind of tabooing emerged in treating some subjects, where all look with suspicion at any journalist who tries to look with open eyes at whatever the investigator Mehlis is doing."