By Mohammad Ayesh – middleeasteye.net — Journalist Dima Sadek sentenced to a year in prison A Lebanese court sentenced prominent Lebanese journalist Dima Sadek to one year in prison following a lawsuit by the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement party (FPM) Gebran Bassil, Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Today reported on Tuesday. In the lawsuit filed in 2020, the former foreign minister accused the journalist of “defamation and libel” after she denounced the party for “incitement” and “racism”. In a video posted on Twitter, Sadek said she was being accused of “slander, defamation and inciting sectarian strife” for comments she made in February 2020 regarding two young men who were attacked in the northern city of Tripoli by men linked to the FPM.
The journalist had described the attack on one of the men, who was assaulted by the bodyguards of a former FPM lawmaker, as “racist and Nazi”. “Gebran Bassil is suing me in the case of Zakaria al-Masri,” Sadek said in the video. Sadek was also ordered to pay 110 million Lebanese pounds (about $1,200) in compensation to the FPM, according to court documents. The journalist plans to appeal the decision. “Instead of arresting the attackers who ‘incite sectarian strife’, a verdict was issued against me,” she said. Sadek added that the verdict against her sets “a very, very dangerous precedent on the freedom of journalism, media and expression in Lebanon”.
Over two million visit Qatar in six months
Qatar has announced that it has received more than two million visitors in the first half of this year, reflecting a good performance of the tourism sector in the country, according to Al-Khaleej Online news website. The Qatar Tourism Authority said the total number of visitors in the first half of 2023 nearly doubled its level before the coronavirus pandemic. It added that during this period, 51 percent of visitors flew into Qatar, while 37 percent came in by land, and 12 percent by sea.
The agency showed that people coming from Saudi Arabia topped the list of visitors to Qatar, while India and Germany came in second and third places, respectively. Notably, more than 567,000 people visited Qatar in May and June, the highest number in the past 10 years. *Arabic press review is a digest of news reports not independently verified as accurate by Middle East Eye.
