Conflict Incident Report

Prominent TV talk show host Marcel Ghanem appeared before Mount Lebanon First Examining Magistrate Nicola Mansour in connection with a controversial episode of his Kalam Ennas show, as protesters braved heavy rain to express solidarity with him outside the Baabda Justice Palace.

The solidarity rally was attended by Information Minister Melhem Riachi and Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh, Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel, the MPs Nadim Gemayel, Ghazi Aridi and Nabil de Freige, ex-MP Fares Soaid, a Progressive Socialist Party delegation, and a number of political, syndical and press figures.

Ghanem is accused of hosting Saudi journalists who branded the Lebanese president and parliament speaker as "terrorists" during one of his show's episodes.

“I'm not supposed to defend anyone. I'm a talk show host. I don't regret what I did on air and I only managed the episode. What is my crime?” Ghanem had recently said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television.

Justice Minister Salim Jreissati has said that Ghanem was only supposed to give his testimony and that no lawsuit would be filed against him.

Jreissati had asked the country's prosecutor general to launch an investigation against the two Saudi journalists who appeared on Ghanem's Kalam Ennas talk show, one of the most watched weekly TV programs in Lebanon.

The minister wrote in a two-page letter to the prosecutor that the two men, Ibrahim Al Merhi and Adwan al-Ahmari, had engaged in libel against top officials including President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

The move came at a time when tensions were very high between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia over the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, announced from the Saudi capital Riyadh.