AMAL Supporters Try to Storm al-Jadeed Building in Protest at TV Show
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Supporters of AMAL Movement attempted to storm al-Jadeed TV's building in Beirut on Tuesday evening in protest at a satirical TV show that they deemed insulting to AMAL founder Imam Moussa al-Sadr.
TV footage showed hundreds of demonstrators trying to push their way through police and army lines with the aim of storming the building.
Protesters also hurled rocks and firecrackers at the building, smashing several windows and injuring two al-Jadeed employees and a policeman.
The demonstrators eventually dispersed after around two hours of rioting and following the arrival of huge army reinforcements.
President Michel Aoun, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Defense Minister Yaaqoub al-Sarraf and Information Minister Melhem Riachi had held a series of contacts with security chiefs and political leaders in a bid to pacify the situation.
Al-Jadeed deputy chairwoman Karma Khayyat had urged the army to “intervene to put an end to the behavior of (Speaker Nabih) Berri's supporters outside al-Jadeed's building,” calling the protesters' actions “an insult to Imam Moussa al-Sadr.”
An army force eventually arrived outside the building to reinforce security lines.
Army forces also deployed along the Salim Salam bridge and on the highway near the Sports City, state-run National News Agency reported.
“Those attacking al-Jadeed's building did not watch the episode that they are protesting against and al-Jadeed does not accept any insult against Sayyed Moussa al-Sadr,” Khayyat stressed.
“We are being threatened with bullets and the cutting off of broadcast, but this will not deter us from saying the truth,” Khayyat added.
Earlier in the day, AMAL supporters had blocked the highway linking the city of Sidon to the South, which was eventually reopened.
Media reports said AMAL supporters have also forced many cable TV providers in Beirut, Dahiyeh, the South and the Bekaa to remove al-Jadeed from their service.
In its latest episode on Sunday, the satirical show “Douma Cracy” hosted ex-MP Hassan Yaaqoub, the son of Sheikh Mohammed Yaaqoub who disappeared along with Imam al-Sadr during a 1978 visit to Libya.
Ex-MP Yaaqoub is an opponent of Berri and has criticized his handling of al-Sadr's case.
The episode featured three puppets impersonating Berri, slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and former U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.
According to An Nahar newspaper, the episode “hinted that Berri knows the location in which al-Sadr vanished.”
The TV show is directed by controversial director Charbel Khalil.
AMAL MP Hani Qobeissi had on Monday accused al-Jadeed of “insulting” al-Sadr whom he described as “the first defender of Lebanon.”
“The language of mockery and disrespect showed that your $70 million contract with some remnants of the Libyan regime to print their books is more important to you than all the causes of the country and its people,” Qobeissi said in a statement.
“AMAL Movement with its martyrs, wounded, cadres and leader will not confront you, because you are too little for that,” the MP added.
Resistance Brigades gunmen had attacked al-Jadeed's building in 2012 in protest at an interview with Islamist cleric Ahmed al-Asir.
14 February 2017, 21:01
100
Probaly the same mockery that you people make everyday texas.
14 February 2017, 21:18
100
You really believe your own crap don't you?
You're trying so hard to be this other guy, it's painful to watch texas.
Al Jadeed is a provocative TV station, it's not the first time they mock leaders and martyrs.
You don't see March 8 TV stations mock Rafic Hariri do you.
14 February 2017, 21:38
111
Let's not forget that Al Jadeed channel listened deeply and sympathetic to the Salafi criminal Ahmed Al Assir and made interviews to hear him out, the murderer of proud Lebanese Soldier martyrs.
15 February 2017, 05:50
16
People have the right to protest legally but not to threaten or engage in violence. What I find outrageous though is that many of our Shia friends go apocalyptic when the name of Musa Sadr is mentioned without the honorific of Imam and Sayyed yet have no qualm about calling Rafiq Hariri all types of names.
15 February 2017, 05:39
15
And it is a march 8 mouthpiece - except of course if the check from Iran bounced recently
15 February 2017, 01:54
16
but the same heretic and his 20 fake accounts were defending Al Jadeed and calling it the voice of reason when the STL accused it and its Chief Karma Khayat of contempt of court.
15 February 2017, 07:31
15
it was freedom of speech then, but now it does not apply when it touches their heretic leaders.
14 February 2017, 21:27
16
This is why Muslim countries will always go backwards. They don't want free speech or anything. The only thing they know is to live under the boot of a za3im or a leader.
Is this also the west foult?
14 February 2017, 21:31
23
The real deal here is probably a commercial/ego disagreement between Khayyat and Berri.
One is using Al Sadr and the other is using freedom of the press.
Cut it out boys and share the corruption cake.
15 February 2017, 00:54
17
Crazies! Whatever that was, only uneducated sheep can respond to some satirical bad joke with this behavior.
15 February 2017, 01:02
16
lowlife scumbags. Sadr was not a Prophet nor a Saint. He was a politician warlord who formed a sectarian militia that killed and still kills.
15 February 2017, 08:16
14
No arrests made or will ever be made...... aoun implementing the rule of the law. But the civil activists who protested against the waste crisis are all in front of the military courts;)
15 February 2017, 11:27
61
Violence is bad, but protesting is as much a right as free speech is. In any case, Lebanon is not exactly the best place to mock the religious leaders of other sects.
