Daouk clears charred bodies' case

I just demanded that Marcel Ghanem gets reprimanded for imprudently airing pictures of charred bodies on his evening talkshow which turned out to be 2-year-old Moroccan pictures, caretaker minister of Information Walid Daouk, cleared out the issue today. I am perfectly concerned with freedom of expression and I just wished to pass a message of warning, Daouk retorted. All what it took was to instruct the National Media Board to reprimand the LBCI for its mistake and that certain redlines would never be trespassed in this regard. Daouk referred to 9/11 to make his point saying no bodies were then shown on US TV networks. Ghanem is not being targeted rather than certain mistakes craving to be averted, the minister added. News-monitoring is henceforth conducive to ensuring order and stability and despite differences of opinion with Mikati over the issue, the National Media Board could have possibly gone further than instructed, he went on. Concerning his approach in defusing media-concocted tensions, Daouk stressed the paramount importance of freedom of expression. The official TV station is vital for disseminating objective truth yet, Daouk acknowledged the difficulty of financing it in view of being a mere caretaker government.