Al-Akhbar and its controversies

Al-Akhbar has been breaking waves. It is quickly becoming a major media source in Lebanon and beyond. While there are no clear data on sales, it is emerging as the number one newspaper in Lebanon, and you can check Alexa ranking in Lebanon for that. It has been breaking taboos, right and left and does not spare any side from criticisms, especially religious fundamentalists and others. Its Hariri and Saudi enemies were pleased at first to dismiss it as a voice for Hizbullah and March 8. But when the paper starting publishing criticisms of Syria and Hizbullah itself and the opposition in general, they got confused. And when the paper started posting an ad for whiskey, they realized that it is not a voice for Hizbullah or Iran, as they were hoping it was to categorize it the way we categorize Saudi tabloids and Hariri rags. The paper, importantly, broke taboos in its culture and justice sections as well: speaking for not only women, and foreign maids, but also for gays and lesbians--a first in any Arabic newspaper, bar none. And Hizbullah is not, to put mildly, keen on the rights of gays and lesbians. (Although it should be stated the Islamic fundamentalists are not as obsessed with homophobia like Christian fundamentalists). You may say that it is not appropriate for me to praise the paper because I write in it. No, it is not inappropriate because I have no role in the paper and its success whatsoever and I deserve no praise for its role because my role is only to write my weekly article. The credit goes to the people at the paper and to comrades Khalid Saghiyyah and Ibrahim Amin who are responsible for the tough independence of the paper. And its publisher (a secular businessman who lives in London) has been unusual (for an Arabic newspaper, or even for a Western newspaper) in not interfering editorially at all. It is probably the only newspaper (East or West that I read), which takes its journalistic mission seriously. Sometimes its strict liberal line may bother me a bit, and it bothers others I know because its op ed pages are the most wide and open of any newspaper I know. But that is the formula of success. Many members of the opposition (in Hizbullah, the `Awni movement, Amal, and the Lebanese Communist Party) have been angry with the paper as of late and speak against it, louder and louder. This week, when the paper came with a cover story about the victory of the Lebanese Forces at St. Joseph University, the entire ranks of the oppositions were pissed. Here, comrade Khalid explains: that this is not a mouthpiece for the opposition in Lebanon. (I only disagree with the last sentence of the article).