Lebanese journalists, media organizations, and civil society groups are facing the repeated use of criminal defamation charges and other vague legal provisions in response to their work alleging corruption and financial mismanagement in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 10, Lebanon's public prosecution summoned journalists from Daraj and Megaphone, two Lebanese media organizations, and the executive director of Kulluna Irada, an advocacy group, for investigative hearings on April 15. Security services previously summoned Daraj journalists in March for questioning.
"Lebanon's recent political changes have not deterred authorities form clamping down on independent media and civil society organizations investigating and reporting on alleged financial misconduct and corruption," said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Once again, we are witnessing the weaponization of criminal defamation laws and other dubious legal provisions in order to stifle attempts to shed light on years of financial malpractices."
Lebanon's new president and government, including the minister of information, as well as the current parliament should publicly commit to protecting the right to freedom of expression.
Since March 2025, Lebanon's Anti-Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Rights Bureau, an Internal Security Forces unit tasked with combating cybercrime and enhancing online security, has twice summoned the editor-in-chief of Daraj following lawsuits over its investigations. Daraj's lawyer told Human Rights Watch that documents he reviewed related to the lawsuits stated they were filed by Antoun Sehnaoui, the CEO of Lebanese bank Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL). The lawsuits, which accuse Daraj of "defamation" and other vague charges, were filed following the media organization's reporting on alleged financial malpractices by SGBL and the Lebanese banking sector more generally.
Media reports and Daraj's lawyer say that Sehnaoui first filed a libel and defamation lawsuit against Daraj's editor-in-chief, Hazem al-Amin, and journalist Jana Barakat in March 2024 in response to a 2023 investigative report on alleged financial malpractices by SGBL and Sehnaoui in the years leading up to and following Lebanon's economic and financial crisis in 2019. Sehnaoui filed a second lawsuit against al-Amin, the lawyer said, on March 10, 2025, in relation to a video report commenting on Sehanoui's initial lawsuit and al-Amin's summons by the cybercrime bureau. Human Rights Watch sent a letter outlining its findings and posing questions to Antoun Sehnaoui on April 4 but has not received a response.
A third complaint
