Sabine Darrous
Daily Star staff

The government’s recent drive to enforce the implementation of the eight-year old Audiovisual Media Law has seen yet another wave of unlicensed radio stations shut down, with media executives agreeing to pay their outstanding dues
to the Treasury.
But disagreement remains between owners of stations and the government, represented by Information Minister Ghazi Aridi, on how to manage the sector ­ which is set to see a bid to amend the media law begin Wednesday.
Aridi met with media representatives Tuesday for the second time after the Cabinet decided two weeks ago to enforce the 1994 law.
According to a source familiar with the meeting, discussions focused on the issue of settling the outstanding dues of television and radio stations which has been a contentious matter involving large sums
of money.
Participants agreed during the discussions to empower the National Audiovisual Media Council to find the proper mechanism for settling the dues which amount to hundreds of millions of pounds.
The source added that Aridi said he was well aware that stations would be unable to pay their in a lump sum, but will have to do so through installments.
The government had given stations until Sept. 15 to do so.
Discussion over the issue focused on when exactly the stations began owing the government money ­ when they first received their broadcasting license or when they actually began broadcasting.
But after an extended debate, media executives agreed with Aridi that stations pay their dues from the date they first received their license.
The meeting was also an occasion for media officials to put their ideas on the table for amending the law to the minister, who in turn will pass it over to Parliament’s media committee which will begin studying it Wednesday.
After the meeting, Aridi said that “important steps” have been achieved thus far on the media level by shutting down illegal radio stations and putting amendments of the law on a “serious track.”
In recent years, successive governments have talked tough about shutting down unlicensed stations, only to see waves of interest in implementing the law fizzle out, as the pirate stations return to the airwaves.
A source familiar with the issue said radio stations intended to do the same, stopping their programming but maintaining a signal in a bid to “reserve” the frequency should they return to the airwaves.
The source said the ministry had the stations, however, that the decision was final.
Hizbullah’s Sawt al-Mustadaafin (Voice of the Oppressed) radio station went off the air last week, and others finally followed the lead in recent days.
Aridi also said that the thousands of illegal cable TV providers should be regulated, saying they were “a violation of the law and are harming the interests of media and the reputation of Lebanon abroad.”
However, Aridi said that pirate cable distribution will not be stopped unless the sector was properly regulated.

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