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Alert

Television correspondent receives death threats

(SKeyes/IFEX) - A correspondent for the Lebanese New TV television station, Ibrahim Dsoki, has received death threats and insults directed at him personally, as well as at his family and work colleagues, from student union members and supporters of the Amal movement (a Lebanese Shi'a political movement founded by Musa al-Sadr).

The threats arrived via Dsoki's private email account and on the website of the television station on 9 March 2011, after the journalist wrote an opinion piece on his private Facebook page criticising the president of the Lebanese parliament and head of the Amal movement, Nabih Berri.

Dsoki accused Berri and the Amal movement of "infiltrating protests that are taking place in Lebanon" (aimed at bringing down the Lebanese sectarian political regime) and "attempting to take control of the popular movement in the streets."

Dsoki told SKeyes that there is an organised campaign against him and that officials in the Amal movement and Berri are behind it. "Some of the Lebanese leaders are like Gods; it is forbidden to criticise them," he said. The journalist said he takes these threats seriously and anticipates that he could be physically attacked.