Though some Qornet Shehwan members believe MTV will be closed indefinitely, they acted to stir public opinion and pressure the authorities. A source close to the gathering said members of the group were hoping for the support of the Maronite patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir.
On Monday, the Publications Court rejected an appeal to reopen MTV, leaving the station's owners with little hope even if they appeal to the Court of Cassation, whose verdict is final. The group fixed a demonstration for next Thursday but did not specify the place or time. It is expected to take place in East Beirut - if the authorities do not block it, as they have in the past. After MTV and Radio Mont Liban were closed on September 4th, Qornet Shehwan called for a demonstration but was taken by surprise by a counter-demonstration to be staged on the same date, prompting the Interior Ministry to ban both.
Qornet Shehwan formed a committee to organize the demonstration and ask political, social and religious leaders for their participation. The committee will also inform the Interior Ministry. A statement issued after the meeting said: "We hope that the parody of provoking counter-demonstrations to coincide with the place and time (of ours) will not happen this time."
The group urged educational institutions across the country to set aside time until Independence Day on November 22nd to explain to students about "the relationship between freedoms and democracy on the one hand and sovereignty and independence on the other."
Earlier, Batroun MP and Qornet Shehwan member Butros Harb, speaking to reporters at Bkirki after holding talks with Sfeir, said that he totally disagreed with the court decision to keep MTV closed indefinitely for breaching Article 68 of the election law, which forbids the airing of election campaign propaganda immediately prior to elections. The MP argued that the ruling did not conform to the intent behind the legislation, which was "to prevent one station from being used by a candidate to ruin the electoral chances of other candidates and sabotage the election process." Harb also contended that applying the legislation after the election period was over was illegal.
Butros Harb added that it was only normal for the station to appeal the court's decision "in order to correct the judicial mistake committed." He agreed with many other critics that the court's decision was political and "surprised none." In his view, all hopes for a legal verdict were vain and "the court had no other alternative but to issue that decision." Asked whether he or other Qornet Shehwan MPs would boycott Parliament or its committees, Harb said he was opposed to a boycott because it would not serve the opposition's cause.
More criticism came from the President of the National Liberal Party, Dory Chamoun, also in Bkirki. "Maybe we should congratulate the judiciary for handing down such a verdict, which killed the station," Chamoun told reporters. "I do not know how the judges allowed themselves to commit such a judicial crime." He called on the media to act "before the same thing happens to other institutions and public freedom is limited."
The Democratic Renewal Movement, headed by Metn MP Nassib Lahoud, also condemned the rejection of the appeal. Its statement said that even before the "nice speeches" about democracy delivered at the recently concluded Francophone summit were forgotten, the authorities began to "gag" people and clamp down on freedom of expression. The statement added that maintaining the closure would not only hurt the two stations and their employees, but also the image of the Lebanese judicial system. The MTV case had become "the perfect example of a political football" that undermined international confidence in the Lebanese economy by exposing the "oppressive practices of the local authorities."
