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1 Middle-East Partnership Initiative

2 TABLE OF CONTENT

About AFE and GAB Media Center…………………………………………………………………………………. 4 I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….…………… 5 II. Coverage of LGBT stories ……………………………………………………………………………………..……7 a. In 2015 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8 b. In 2016 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…...... 10 c. In 2017 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...... 11 III. Discussion of content ………………………………………………………………………………………...... …. 12 IV. Misconceptions and clarifications ……………………………………………..…………………………..….. 13 V. Chart of monitored articles by media outlet …………………………….…..……………………………..... 16 VI. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………….………………….... 17

3 About AFE and GAB Media Center

AFE: The Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE) is an officially registered non-governmental organization based in Beirut, Lebanon. AFE focuses its efforts exclusively on Arab states across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Its vision is to have societies where sexuality, gender and bodily rights are promoted, recognized and respected. The mission of AFE is to encourage and support sexuality, gender and bodily rights’ movements in the Middle East and North Africa* through capacity building, knowledge production, exchange, and security and emergency response. AFE hold itself, its regional partners and board members to these values:

• Integrity and equality: in line with principles of fairness and social justice • Transparency and accountability: financial and programmatic • Non-discrimination: on the basis of age, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, marital status, class, national or ethnic origin, physical or mental ability, and spiritual and political views. • Freedom and self-determination: to work without political or financial restraint or pressure. AFE hold itself, its regional partners and board members to these values:

GAB Media Center:

Gender and Body Rights Media Center (GAB) is a project implemented by The Arab Foundation of Freedoms and Equality (AFE) and funded by the Middle-East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) that brings together media experts and advocates for gender and bodily rights to participate in media related activities in Lebanon and the MENA region directly benefiting journalists, TV producers, human rights workers, activists and the public. GAB’s mission is to build the capacities of human rights activists and media experts and encourages them to collaborate on making the voice of marginalized communities heard. Its activities evolve around fighting gender-based violence and discrimination in the media. Its vision is to have a Lebanese media industry aware of gender-based violations and advocating towards freedoms and equality.

4 I. Introduction 1 For the past decade, the portrayal of sensitive topics such as LGBT+ stories and gender issues has been gradually increasing in the Lebanese media that played the role of a taboo breaker in the Lebanese society. Many media actors asserted their responsibility of advocating for human rights and fighting against discrimination through increasing their coverage of gender issues and taking a clear stance against gender-based violence and systemized violations using their powerful media platforms. The initiative some media actors took to increase in gender issues coverage have allowed civil society organizations and activists who advocate for gender rights to have a platform to speak up and push the society towards more inclusion, tolerance and protection of human rights. This initiative allowed gender topics to be taken into consideration by other media outlets that are less supportive of gender rights but that didn’t want to be left out of the trending conversation. Therefore, the portrayal of sensitive topics did not always happen for the right reasons. More viewers mean more advertisers. Presenting controversial material, especially in a quasi-conservative, religious and patriarchal society like Lebanon, is often a way to attract more audience and grow the viewers numbers. This strategy adopted by many media outlets did not only affect the portrayal of LGBT+ issues; it affected other topics as well, topics that were once considered a taboo in Lebanon: sexual and sex related material, abortion, extra-marital children, single mothers, domestic violence and more. Nevertheless, this strategy had positive outcomes on many human rights causes, served as a taboo breaker and gave individuals a space to speak up.

The Gender and Body Rights Media Center (GAB) at the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE) conducted a media monitoring activity in 2017 to analyze the representation on the LGBT community in the media. They looked closely at a big number of articles and television shows published or broadcasted in Lebanon from January 2015 till November 2017 that covered LGBT issues..

As an organization that has been working on freedoms, equality, gender and human rights in the Middle-East and North Africa region since 2009, AFE is aware of the important role the media can play in maintaining balance in the society especially when it advocates for the protection of human rights and minority rights against systemized discrimination. Hence, the fight for gender rights in Lebanon - particularly LGBT rights - was never to become possible without a strong alliance between civil society organizations and media actors. Two main factors made this alliance possible: on one side, the strong will of civil society organizations and activists advocating for LGBT+ rights to closely work with journalists and producers, tell the stories of numerous individuals who are being deprived from their basic rights in Lebanon to make their voices heard and fight towards positive change; and on the other side, the awareness of tens of journalists and producers of the situation of LGBT rights in Lebanon and their willingness to increase and improve their coverage on these sensitive issues. The coverage of LGBT+ issues became a mutual interest between the Lebanese media and the LGBT+ community.

In this report, we highlighted both positive and negative approaches of the Lebanese media towards LGBT+ issues, and more importantly, the bias - often unconscious or unintentional - that reinforced certain stereotypes in the society and violated the right

1 LGBT is the acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual. The acronym LGBT+ is used in this report to include other sexual orientations and gender identities. 5 of LGBT+ individuals to privacy. Our target is not to earmark the imperfections of the published or broadcasted material but to analyze the occasionally unconscious bias, rooted in the Lebanese society and the mentality of many individuals living in Lebanon, and being reflected in what we see on television or what we read in newspapers and news websites.

6 II. Coverage of LGBT stories In the period that extends from 2015 to 2017, many LGBT+ events took place every year. The most common event that takes place every year is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) that has a high media exposure due to its international nature. Other events take place as well such as report launching events, religious statements against homosexuality or forced cancellation of events organized by LGBT+ organizations, for example. In this section, arrticles and television shows were analyzed by year; they were linked to the context in which the media content was created and the nature of the reported event. It goes without saying that some media organizations have been keen on being more subtle and protective of LGBT+ right when publishing sensitive content, while others have been less aware of the negative effect their biased implications can have on their audience and consequently on the society.

In general, newspaper articles that were subject to our monitoring activity were less 2 biased and more balanced than television shows. Most of these articles gave enough space to LGBT+ individuals or organizations representing them to express themselves, used balanced terminology and cited unbiased sources. On the contrary, TV shows left more room to express misconceptions where presenters abundantly asked violating and stigmatizing questions (e.g. “What is between your legs?”), put their guest in embarrassing situations (e.g. Pressure an LGBT+ guest to send a message to their parents live on television) and didn’t always give them enough air space to express their opinions or to defend themselves, especially when the power dynamics between guest were largely unequal.

2 Biased media content is what clearly takes a stance against the LGBT+ cause. Bias can sometimes be intentional (when a TV presenter explicitly states their anti-LGBT+ opinion for example), or unconscious and unintentional. Unconscious bias negatively affects the balance of the media content and can be visible through the choice of guests, the violating questions asked to LGBT+ individuals or the little time or space given to LGBT+ guests to express their opinions. 7 a. Coverage of LGBT+ stories in 2015 Number of articles and TV shows monitored: 25

List of content with the most positive tone: - “The fight goes on for Lebanon›s LGBT community,” Sophie Chamas, Al Monitor - “The Arabic media rediscovers homosexuality,” Al Araby Al Jadeed - “Because people are equal in dignity and rights, say no to criminalizing homosexuality,” Joe Maalouf, LBCI - “Lebanese artists stand against homophobia,” LBCI - “Hammam Al Agha raid: Discretion of security forces and a flood of abuses,” Elham Barjas, Al Modon Electronic Newspaper - “The hell of discrimination: Homosexuals and Transsexuals speak up,” Sohayb Ayoub, Al Modon Newspaper

Content with negative tone: In this section, not all monitored content with negative tone is listed. We listed below analyzable content that majorly allows us to draw recommendations on media coverage of LGBT+ issues.

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3 Dead name: it is the assigned name at birth and not the real name of someone from the trans* community. 4 Wearing a mask on television is problematic because it doesn’t allow the efficient expression of feelings and discredits guests wearing a mask. 9 b. Coverage of LGBT+ stories in 2016 Number of articles and TV shows monitored: 18

List of content with most positive tone: - “The situation of transsexuals in Lebanon,” Tarek Soueid, OTV - “The judge and social pre-judgements,” Legal Agenda - “Homosexuality is not a crime,” Foutoun Raad, LBCI - “And they say: Fear for your children, homosexuality is contagious,” Stephanie Ghanem, Raseef 22 - “Homosexuality beyond televisions routine,” Fatima Abdallah, Annahar - “Homosexuality in Islam,” Joe Maalouf, LBCI - “Transsexuals,” Claude Abou Nader Hindi, MT

10 c. Coverage of LGBT+ stories in 2017 Number of articles and TV shows monitored: 31

List of content with most positive tone: - “The Lebanese State surrenders to homophobia,” Viviane Akiki, Al-Akhbar - «God didn›t punish the people of Lot because they were homosexuals»: Imams try to reconcile religion with homosexuality”, Haifa Zaiter, Raseef 22 - “Tony Khalife and homosexuality: an episode that belongs to a past era,” Rima Ibrahim, Al Modon Electronic Newspaper - “Homosexuality is no longer a crime in Lebanon,” Youmna Fawaz, New TV - “Homophobia strikes again in Beirut,” Al-Akhbar - “Comics: a week against homophobia and transphobia in Lebanon,” Legal Agenda

11 III. Discussion of content The Lebanese media has remarkably improved its coverage of LGBT+ topics. As listed in the previous section, most media content had a positive or neutral tone. Some journalists preferred to remain neutral in their coverage of LGBT+ issues and interviewing different sources and points of view, whereas other journalists and presenters courageously took the initiative to use their platform to advocate for LGBT rights.

In 2015, the percentage of negative or discriminative media content was higher (%52) than positive and neutral content (%48). Depending on media outlets, newspapers and news websites’ articles had in general a less discriminative and more balanced tone than television shows and reports. Furthermore, prime time news reports, or informative news reports in general, had a positive, neutral or less discriminative tone than social shows. In print content (newspapers and news websites), Al Modon Electronic newspaper recorded the most positive tone and highest rate in covering LGBT+ issues. In broadcast, LBCI recorded a constant positive tone and a biggest number of LGBT+ related reports.

In 2016, the number of positive and neutral content (%83.3) increased compared to the negative content (%16.6). This increase may have been the result of sympathy the media 5 had towards an LGBT+ organization after the forced cancellation of its cultural event . In 2016, presenter Tarek Soueid presented the most balanced and positive TV episode of

5 The Catholic Information Center pressured the administration of the venue where the cultural event was supposed to take place; the event was forcibly cancelled one day before the event.

12 his show “Bel Arabi El Mshabrah.” In this episode, Soueid delicately interviewed his guests, used non-discriminative terminologies (terms such as corrective surgeries instead of sexual transformation for example), didn’t violate the privacy of his guests and respected their wish to be called with names and pronouns they chose. The purpose of the episode was very clear: to highlight legal difficulties and obstacles trans* people face because their sexual or gender identity do not match their legal identity papers. An additional positive aspect of media coverage of LGBT+ issues in 2016 was highlighting the difficulties of trans* people in the Lebanese society. The media has always been interested in talking about homosexuality and did not give the same importance to trans* stories. However, due to many human rights organizations’ efforts, 2016 marked an increase in the coverage of transsexuality stories recording %17 of monitored media content.

In 2017, LGBT+ news were the main attraction of the media on many occasions. During this year, Judge Rabih Maalouf refused to criminalize LGBT+ individuals under article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code6 stating that “homosexuality is the exercise of a natural right and is not a crime” in his ruling. Consequently, religious authorities in Lebanon were enraged. Two events for two LGBT+ organizations were cancelled due to religious pressure. Muslim (both Sunni and Shiite) and Christian leaders expressly stated their objection to homosexuality. In addition, a social media campaign was launched against Lebanese journalist Diana Mokalled because she publicly supported LGBT+ rights on her Facebook page. In %67.7 ,2017 of monitored content had a neutral or positive tone compared to %32.3 of content with negative or discriminative tone.

IV. Misconceptions and clarifications A close and careful monitoring of the articles and television show episodes collected from 2015 to 2017 has shown that, in general, Lebanese media outlets and journalists are more aware of the responsibility of media in promoting human rights and LGBT+ rights. However, some media outlets, presenters and journalists are still attached to a wide range of misconceptions that we aim to highlight in this section. These misconceptions are not always born from an intention to discriminate the LGBT+ community, but from pre-judgements rooted in the Lebanese society and the lack of knowledge of LGBT+ definitions, terminologies and facts caused by years of the community being forced into silence, criminalizing laws and structural stigmatization. This misinformation is sometimes unconsciously visible through offensive and discriminative questions and statements. Through carefully monitoring and comparing all the media content published during the period that extends from 2015 to November 2017, a list of common misconceptions and offensive questions and statements expressed by journalists, presenters or producers was created. This list helped us identify the needs and information media actors can use to produce balanced and non-discriminative content. Having a clear list of common misconceptions allowed us to identify the information needed to be communicated to decrease the amount of “false information” and aggressive content that are being transmitted to readers and viewers, and that are – directly and indirectly – reinforcing stereotypes and occasionally encouraging hate speech.

56 TArticle 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code prohibits having sexual relations that are «contradicting the laws of nature», which is punishable by up to a year in prison. 13 14 15 V. Chart of monitored articles by media outlet The chart below indicated the positive and the negative tones compared to the number of articles published by media outlets for the 3 years.

16 VI. Conclusion Journalists and media outlets are key allies in advancing LGBT+ rights. The change in media discourse on LGBT+ issues was achieved due to journalists’ strong believe in human rights values and due to LGBT+ organizations trust in the role of the media and its ability to advocate for social change.

The tone of articles and content published, as well as the frequency of LGBT+ stories published in media outlets are not strictly related to editorial policies of media organizations. Through monitoring the content of 74 articles and TV shows in 16 Lebanese media outlets, we were able to identify media organizations whose editorial policy has a clear stance in supporting LGBT+ issues and other organizations that publish LGBT+ content regardless of its negative and positive tone. For example, Al Modon Electronic Newspaper, Al Akhbar, LBCI and Legal Agenda have a high rate of LGBT+ articles and cover LGBT+ news most of the time, always with a positive or neutral tone. On the contrary, Janoubia news website covered many LGBT+ news but always with a negative tone whereas Annahar and MTV published LGBT+ related content with a negative tone sometimes, and a positive or neutral tone other times. Moreover, journalists and presenters play a big role in determining the tone. Some journalists insist on maintaining a positive tone while covering LGBT+ issues, other journalists maintain a negative tone. However, the negative tone might not always be intentional and might depend on the format or the platform of the media outlet or the TV show. Some formats allow a larger margin of error and assumptions, while other formats are “safer” and allow journalists to be delicate and precise in their coverage of LGBT issues.

In general, the prevalence of the positive tone in the media content that was subject to our monitoring activity proves that media outlets are more open to change and understand the responsibility of the media in protecting human rights and defending stigmatized and marginalized communities. The work of many LGBT+ organizations with the media for the past few years through advocacy and capacity building activities have brought journalists, producers and LGBT+ advocates closer to working together to achieve a good representation of the LGBT+ community in the media.

The role of the media is not restricted to covering stories, presenting social problems and controversies in the Lebanese society. The media must suggest solutions as well. When the media does not take a stance to protect stigmatized people and marginalized communities, or when it intentionally fights against them through empowering discriminative authorities and encouraging them to violate human rights, it fails to be a tool used towards social change. The Lebanese media should assert its responsibility through ethical journalism and equal representation of all individuals living in Lebanon, and continue to be a powerful tool used to protect freedoms and equality.