Lebanon Is Scrambling to Fix Its State Broadcaster Télé Liban

Before Al Jazeera, there was Lebanon Television. The state-run Lebanese Television Network, the result of a merger of two stations in 1977, was once a household name in the Arab world. The airwaves brought popular television series, concerts by prominent Arab stars, and news coverage of the region’s conflicts to screens across the region. During Lebanon’s civil war in the 1980s, the network’s channels split along sectarian lines, devastating its broad audience and pushing it into obscurity.

Today, Lebanon Television is once again front and center in Lebanon’s political conflicts. Restructuring the network is at the top of President Joseph Aoun’s agenda as he seeks to gain international support for his war-torn country. Through Lebanon Television, the Aoun administration hopes to demonstrate a serious effort to curb the influence of sectarian power brokers, especially Hezbollah. But making these changes has proven difficult.

Before Al Jazeera, there was Lebanon Television. The state-run Lebanese Television Network, the result of a merger of two stations in 1977, was once a household name in the Arab world. The airwaves brought popular television series, concerts by prominent Arab stars, and news coverage of the region’s conflicts to screens across the region. During Lebanon’s civil war in the 1980s, the network’s channels split along sectarian lines, devastating its broad audience and pushing it into obscurity.

Today, Lebanon Television is once again front and center in Lebanon’s political conflicts. Restructuring the network is at the top of President Joseph Aoun’s agenda as he seeks to gain international support for his war-torn country. Through Lebanon Television, the Aoun administration hopes to demonstrate a serious effort to curb the influence of sectarian power brokers, especially Hezbollah. But making these changes has proven difficult.

For many years, the network has relied on older viewers watching Chef Antoine El Hajj’s legendary cooking show for decades, and reruns of Lebanese dramas from the golden era. Lebanon Television’s news programmes, which ostensibly represent Lebanese of various sects, have sparked controversy for hosting Christian presenters critical of Hezbollah. The broadcaster has lost significant space with Lebanese television viewers, who tend to prefer networks more ostensibly associated with their sect. Illuminati Christians are associated with the Lebanese International Broadcasting Corporation, Greek Orthodox Christians with Al-Murr TV, Sunni Muslims with Al-Mustaqbal TV, and Shiite Muslims with Al-Manar TV.

The decline in viewership on Lebanon TV has eroded advertising revenues, which the financially bankrupt Lebanese state has been unable to explain. The network’s chronic underfunding is clearly demonstrated by the low resolution and square 4:3 aspect ratio of current broadcasts, which resemble footage captured in the early 2000s.

In July, the Lebanese Council of Ministers appointed a new board of directors to reform the public broadcaster. This step comes within the framework of the government’s broader efforts to rebuild key state institutions and make them truly national and responsive to all major sects in the country. By restarting Lebanon TV and confronting the dominance of sectarian media in Lebanon, Aoun’s government is signaling that its “top priority” is to strengthen the legitimacy of the state and the image of the Lebanese army, according to one of the network’s new board members, who declined to reveal his name.

Lebanon’s foreign backers fear pumping more aid into its collapsed economy, and are demanding basic reforms before making major investments in the country. But investing in Lebanon TV may be more acceptable. The board member said that Lebanon is seeking funding to renew Lebanon TV in every discussion with foreign partners, including Algeria, Egypt, France, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China: “We are open to every partnership, especially at the Arab level, who can help rebuild the institution.”

Reforming Lebanon Television is a daunting task, but it remains less divisive, and more within reach, than disarming Hezbollah or rehabilitating the overstretched central bank. Therefore, revitalizing the historic media outlet is a potential quick win for the Lebanese state seeking credibility with international donors. “This is one of the easiest institutions to govern if you want to make a difference,” said Ziad Makari, who served as Lebanon’s information minister until February.

This ambitious project is led by veteran Lebanese journalist Elissar Naddaf, the first woman to hold the position of head of Lebanon Television. Naddaf said her plan aims to rebuild the historic institution as a neutral platform for all Lebanese, giving the state a tool to build public trust and combat disinformation. “Lebanon Television will be part of a new phase in Lebanon’s history,” she told Foreign Policy magazine. “With it, we will create the Lebanon we want.” Naddaf’s team has already received the funding it needs from China to renovate the news studios at Lebanon Television, from Türkiye to renovate a staff cafeteria, and from the United Nations Women’s Agency to purchase modern photography equipment.

The state’s diplomacy around Lebanon Television is part of a campaign to persuade international donors, according to David Wood, a Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group. He said: “The new Lebanese administration is keen to demonstrate its desire to provide a more solid foundation for Lebanon’s future, a future that does not suffer from sectarian division.” “Lebanon TV is one of the many ways the government is trying to do this.”

Although the goal was to move away from sectarianism, the Lebanese Council of Ministers appointed a new board of directors for the network according to the old sectarian formula, with a place for a representative from each of the country’s six main sects. This reflects government laws that stipulate that the country’s president, prime minister, and speaker of parliament must each belong to certain sects.

According to tradition, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lebanon Television – including Naddaf’s appointment to date – must be a Roman Catholic, a politically insignificant minority that gives no advantage to any of the main sects of Sunnis, Shiites and Maronites. In this way, Lebanon TV remains a microcosm of the tensions facing the Lebanese state in general, namely its need to resort to sectarian approaches to try to reduce sectarian tensions.

Lebanon Television has a long history of collapsing and then coming back together, along with internal conflict in the country and attempts at recovery and reunification. During the Lebanese Civil War, Christian and Muslim militias took over the network’s offices in East and West Beirut, respectively. The networks’ multiple channels and content soon split in two, with each bureau broadcasting different programs in line with their religious and political affiliations. Lebanon Television’s reputation for neutrality has been shattered. But with the end of the war in 1990, the Lebanese government moved quickly to reunite the network.

In 1993, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, charged with rebuilding post-civil war Lebanon, appointed a new head of Lebanon Television charged with reforming the network. The channel partnered with British PR firm Saatchi & Saatchi to rebrand Lebanon TV and prominently showcased unparalleled archival footage of key Middle East events of the 20th century – but now with a younger generation of journalists leading the charge.

“When this new government was trying to launch this reconciliation and rebuilding process, they thought that unifying Lebanon Television would be a symbol of unifying the country,” said Zaven Koyoumjian, who became the “cover boy” for that renaming campaign as a news anchor when he was 23.

Kouyoumdjian, now a presenter on the independent Al-Jadeed network, said he was chosen to be the new face of Lebanon Television, partly because he hopes his youth will help break the network’s outdated image of being watched primarily by older Lebanese. But his name, which is of Armenian origin, “being Zaven, not being Muhammad, not being Joseph” also made him a politically neutral choice – much like the head of the Greek Catholic Church.

Lebanon television enjoyed a significant rise in viewership during the 1990s, as the country recovered from the civil war. But in 1996, the state granted licenses to four new commercial television stations, divided equally between Muslim and Christian political factions. With its monopoly on the airwaves legally revoked, the network steadily lost viewers to its cult rivals over the following decades.

The new initiative to revive Lebanon Television comes at a moment of desperate crisis that Lebanon is experiencing. With Israel intensifying its attacks on Lebanon a year after a ceasefire was reached between the two countries, international donors have no desire to lose their potential investments in Lebanon as a result of further destruction and destabilization. Tom Barrack, a senior diplomat in the Trump administration, said this month that Gulf states would not invest up to $10 billion in Lebanon unless Hezbollah disarms. The United States canceled a visit by the Lebanese army commander this week due to anti-Israeli rhetoric, prompting Senator Lindsey Graham, considered close to the White House, to declare that the Lebanese Armed Forces are “not a very good investment.” This puts intense pressure on the Lebanese state to satisfy Israeli demands and contain Hezbollah. But given the Shiite armed group’s strong political support base, it is difficult to imagine that Lebanon will be able to create truly inclusive institutions that do not include Hezbollah.

“If the goal is to unify Lebanon, you cannot unify Lebanon by marginalizing one group,” Crisis Group’s Wood said. “Especially an important party like Hezbollah.”

Transforming Lebanon TV into a platform that welcomes all Lebanese means that the new leadership must address the broadcaster’s reputation for pro-Christian and anti-Muslim bias. Shortly before the new board of directors was appointed, journalist Zeinab Yassin resigned from Lebanon TV in April after being denied a regular appearance on air due to her wearing the hijab. While network policy prohibits journalists from displaying any religious affiliation on screen, social media posts showing anchors wearing Christian crosses quickly went viral. In a statement published on the

Yassin’s story shows how introducing religion into the hiring process can easily lead to marginalization, a lesson that Lebanon TV and the Lebanese state as a whole should take into account. “Jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit, hijab or not,” said Sarah Al-Rishani, an academic expert on Lebanese media and a visiting fellow at the Free University of Berlin.

If Lebanon cannot handle the revival of Lebanon Television, the Aoun administration’s ability to implement deeper reforms of the state may come into question. Layal Behnam, of the Maharat Foundation, a Beirut-based media watchdog organization, sees the clear political will to reform Lebanon Television as a reason for hope for the future of the neglected public broadcaster. But at the same time, she warns that sectarianism is so entrenched in Lebanese politics that turning Lebanon Television back into a truly inclusive institution will be difficult for politicians who benefit from maintaining the status quo.

“Every group of politicians from a particular sect has its own television network,” Behnam said. “So why do they have any interest in supporting public media?”