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PROMINENT JOURNALIST ASSASSINATED

In another blow for press freedom in Lebanon, a prominent newspaper owner and opposition politician was killed in Beirut on 12 December 2005, the third journalist targeted this year for criticising Syria's influence over the country, reported IFEX members.

Gebran Tueni, publisher of the independent newspaper "An-Nahar", was killed with three others when a bomb blew up his car as it traveled through the suburb of Mukhallis, said the International Press Institute (IPI). The bombing occurred on the day the U.N. Security Council was expected to discuss a report on its investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.

Tueni was well known for his outspoken criticism of Syrian influence in Lebanon and was one of the first Lebanese editors to publicly condemn the pro-Syrian regime through his columns and public statements. A father of four, he was killed the day after he returned home from Paris, where he had lived since August because of fears for his safety.

A previously-unknown group calling itself Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack but there was no independent confirmation. Tueni's assassination was condemned by IPI, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

In the mid-1990s, Tueni received WAN's "Award for Publishing Achievement" for his courage and perseverance in publishing "An-Nahar" throughout the Lebanese civil war.

Tueni is the third journalist who has been attacked for criticising Syria since the February 2005 assassination of al-Hariri, according to RSF and CPJ.

In September, May Chidiac, a political talk show host with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, lost an arm and a leg when a bomb exploded under the driver's seat of her car near the city of Jounieh.

In June, popular "An-Nahar" columnist Samir Kassir was killed in a car-bomb attack. The Samir Kassir Foundation, headed by Kassir's widow Gisèle Khoury, continues to press for an investigation into Kassir's murder.

It recently launched a website - http://www.samirkassir.net - to keep his memory alive and to promote press freedom. The foundation publishes and translates articles and books written by Kassir, and has created a mobile museum, featuring photographs of Kassir and his writings.

Visit these links:

- WAN Tribute to Tueni: http://www.wan-press.org/article8832.html
- IPI: http://www.freemedia.at/Protests2005/pr_Lebanon12.12.05.htm
- IFJ: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=3595&Language=EN
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15886
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Lebanon12dec05na.html
- BBC Obituary: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4520762.stm
- Beirut Press Mourns Tueni: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4523886.stm
- Samir Kassir Foundation: http://www.samirkassir.net/
- EU Launches Samir Kassir Press Freedom Prize: http://www.dellbn.cec.eu.int/en/whatsnew/samirkassir05.htm