Media Reform in Lebanon

Project Overview

Lebanon has been navigating for years an unprecedented convergence of political, social, and economic crises. Substantial reforms remain a precondition of any sustainable recovery. During this period of uncertainty and transition, independent and trustworthy media is more important than ever, enabling Lebanese citizens to hold those in power accountable, follow up on reforms, expose corruption, and access evidence-based information on matters of public interest.

In collaboration with  Maharat and Legal Agenda, two NGOs based in Lebanon, Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) is implementing the project “Support to Media Reform in Lebanon to Enhance Freedom of Expression,” funded under the Global Europe: Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) of the European Union.

Maharat has been consistently working to advance a supportive ecosystem for Freedom of Expression (FoE) through its advocacy work, media monitoring reports, training programs, and diverse resources about FoE including Internet freedom. Legal Agenda is an established socio-legal research, strategic litigation and advocacy organization, with a specialized media outlet that attracts an average of 600,000 visitors per year from Lebanon and the MENA region. It has a more than 10-years of track record in driving public debate on socio-legal issues, in particular related to the independence of the judiciary, liberties, public freedoms, and socio-economic rights.

The project aims to enable local actors, including MPs, relevant ministries, judges, lawyers, scholars and media makers to create these openings, building on European standards while making sure only those fitting the context apply. The project supports EU priorities in the field of human rights, specifically freedom of expression, to strengthen democracy and assist in the implementation of the EU EOM’s finding as per the Human Rights and Democracy Thematic Program under Global Europe: Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) – the EU program for external action funds for 2021-2027.

Phase II (2026–2027)

Phase II of the project launched in January 2026, building on the research and advocacy achievements of Phase I. Its overall objective is to enhance freedom of expression, media freedom, and information integrity in Lebanon, pursued through two specific objectives:

Specific Objective 1: To sustain advocacy and multi-stakeholder engagement for the adoption and implementation of a standard-compliant media framework in Lebanon.

Specific Objective 2: To strengthen the ecosystem for knowledge, research, and rule-of-law support on media freedom and democratic information standards.

MJRC leads on comparative expertise, research design, and methodological guidance across four areas of activity.

Media Policy Coverage Guidelines and Guidance Desk

MJRC is developing a practical reference guide providing journalists with structured tools to report on regulatory frameworks, legislative processes, and freedom-of-expression issues. The guide includes short presentations, templates, and case studies covering how to understand regulatory frameworks, turn legal reform into human-interest stories, use data and comparative evidence, and apply ethical standards when reporting on institutions and policymakers.

The guidelines feed directly into a Guidance Desk jointly coordinated by Maharat and MJRC, an open support mechanism for journalists covering media regulation, transparency, and freedom-of-expression issues. The Guidance Desk offers journalists rapid access to policy expertise, fact-checking support, and mentoring as they develop their stories, responding to a gap repeatedly highlighted during Phase I: the absence of a reliable point of contact for verifying legal information and contextualising reform developments.

Technical Assistance for the National Media Council

MJRC co-leads the development of three foundational instruments to support the future National Media Council (NMC) of Lebanon:

• Media Monitoring System Guidebook: A comprehensive guide presenting methodologies, indicators, and international best practices for monitoring media ownership, funding, and content distribution. Drawing on comparative experiences from European regulators, it outlines a step-by-step approach, from manual data collection to digital solutions, adaptable to Lebanon’s institutional realities.
• Foundational Policies and Procedures Guidebook: Model internal policies for the Lebanese media regulator, outlining transparent decision-making procedures, ethical standards, and independence safeguards.
• Prototype of a Media Ownership and Transparency Registry: A detailed framework for a transparent, continuously updated registry of media ownership and financial structures, essential for monitoring concentration, promoting accountability, and strengthening public trust. Drawing on MJRC’s comparative work designing similar mechanisms in Europe, the prototype specifies what data should be collected, how it should be structured, and how it can be made publicly accessible in line with transparency and data-protection standards.

Young Media Researchers Program for Lebanon

Building on MJRC’s established Young Media Researchers Program, which produced studies such as Control Beyond Code and Mapping EU Spending on Media Projects, Phase II introduces a Lebanon-specific research stream linking academic evidence directly to advocacy and policy development.

Two cohorts of five Master’s students each, drawn from journalism and communication faculties across Lebanon, carry out applied research on media transparency, algorithmic governance, AI-driven misinformation, electoral information integrity, and digital rights.

MJRC co-designs the mentorship framework, leads research methodology and comparative input, and reviews all outputs. Fellows’ work will be published online and integrated into Maharat’s advocacy tools and the multi-stakeholder dialogue platform.

For more information, see MJRC Young Media Researchers Program page.

Fellowship on Media Reform and AI Governance

MJRC coordinates jointly with Maharat a structured fellowship for five journalists, selected through an open call to be launched in April 2026, with the program running from May to December 2026. The fellowship equips journalists to engage with the intersection of media reform and artificial intelligence, addressing themes including:

• Monetisation models for media in the AI era
• Automation, content production, and disinformation risks
• AI’s potential to reach underrepresented communities and new audiences
• The transition from story-production to service-oriented, data-driven journalism
• Regulatory and ethical frameworks for AI transparency and accountability

Each fellow will receive structured mentorship from MJRC and Maharat experts, participate in thematic sessions with invited international specialists, and produce at least one long-form investigation or policy analysis contributing to Lebanon’s national debate on information integrity and AI governance.

Phase I (2023–2025)

In Phase I, MJRC established a team of six experts who produced studies on EU standards and good practices providing inspiration for media policy reform in Lebanon. These studies were addressed to local actors, including MPs, relevant ministries, judges, lawyers, scholars, and media makers, to help create policy openings grounded in European standards adapted to the Lebanese context.

Research Studies

Monitoring the Ballot: Election Supervision and Observation

Regulation of Social Media and Elections in Europe

How Associations of Journalists Protect Press Freedom in Europe

Arabic version here

Protection of Journalists and Journalistic Sources in Europe

Arabic version here

Public Interest Journalism Startups in Europe: Trends, Players, Challenges and Incentives

Arabic version here

How to Modernize Media Laws to Cope With Digital Change

Arabic version here

Decriminalization of Defamation in the Context of Free Speech: A European Perspective

Arabic version here

A Balancing Act: EU Media Regulation, Co-Regulation and Self-Regulation in the Digital Age

Arabic version here

See the volume Freedom of Expression in Europe consisting of several studies generated in the project

Cite this study

Minna Aslama Horowitz, Attila Mong, Judith Pies, Andrei Richter and Krisztina Rozgonyi. (2024). Freedom of Expression in Europe. Marius Dragomir (ed.). Tallinn/London/Santiago de Compostela: Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC).

Project Team

MJRC Team

Marius Dragomir

Director

Marius Dragomir is an award-winning media scholar and journalist, now serving as the director of the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC). He is also a researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and has served as a visiting professor at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, where he taught courses on journalism, research design, advocacy, and policy engagement.

Bio

Mihaela Groza

Communications Manager

Mihaela Groza works as the Communications Manager at MJRC supervising social media activities as well as managing both internal and external communications. Prior to this role, Mihaela served at CMDS (at CEU), where she took on diverse responsibilities including administration, project management, and research. 

Bio

Theodore Southgate

Research Coordination

Theodore Southgate is a writer and editor based in Barcelona. He has been working with MJRC for several years now as a content editor, mainly on ESL pieces including articles, reports, essays and all manner of other publications related to the field of global journalism. He is now working as a project coordinator for the Media Reform in Lebanon project.

Bio

Experts and Mentors

Minna Aslama Horowitz

Minna Aslama Horowitz is a Docent at the University of Helsinki, a researcher at the Nordic Observatory for Digital Media and Information Disorder (NORDIS), and a Fellow at St. John’s University, New York. She is also a member of the Think Tank of the Nordic Council of Ministers to address platformization in the Nordics. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki and has taken part in several international research activities in the past decade.

Bio

Tanja Kerševan

Tanja Kerševan is a Research Fellow and Assistant Professor at the University of Ljubljana. As a former media regulator and State Secretary for culture, media and film, her research focuses on media, audiovisual and digital platform policies and regulation. She currently serves as an independent member and co-drafting rapporteur of the Committee of Experts on Media Regulators in a Platform-Based Environment (MSI-eREG). Previously, she chaired the ERGA Subgroup on the Digital European Toolkit and contributed to Council of Europe expert committees on Internet intermediaries (MSI-NET) and artificial intelligence (MSI-AUT) as a member.

Bio

Aleksandar Manasiev

Aleksandar Manasiev is an award-winning journalist and founder of NarativAI–Center for Media Innovation in the Balkans, based in Skopje, North Macedonia. With more than 20 years of experience across print, TV and digital media, his work today centers on supporting newsrooms in adapting to AI-driven transformation, with a strong emphasis on transparency, trust, and editorial responsibility. Through NarativAI, he develops practical frameworks, research, and training programs that help media organizations integrate AI into their workflows.

Bio

Attila Mong

Attila Mong is a Hungarian-born journalist, radio broadcaster and columnist with more than 20 years of experience in news and investigative reporting. Now based in Berlin, Attila works as Europe representative of the global press freedom organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and a consultant on digital innovation projects with the DW Akademie, Germany’s leading media development organization. He is a supervisory board member of Atlatszo, a crowdfunded investigative journalism platform in Hungary.

Bio

Adriana Mutu

Adriana Mutu is a University Professor in the Departments of Humanities and Market Research at ESIC Business & Marketing School in Barcelona, where she also serves as the Head of Academic Quality. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a MA in Journalism and Communication Sciences from the University Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi, Romania. She has conducted research at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Helsinki. Adriana is founding member of MEDEA (Mediterranean Europe and Africa) and provides expertise to the Council of Europe and the European Commission.

Bio

Robert Nemeth

Robert has a 15-year-long career in journalism, with diverse roles at different Hungarian TV stations and online media outlets, ranging from journalist to senior editor and news producer. He was also guest lecturer at the Department of Media and Communication at Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary. He actively participates in various research projects, including leading the MJRC’s collaborative project with Philea on producing the Journalism Funders Forum newsletter.

Bio

Judith Pies

Judith Pies holds a PhD in communication science from the University of Erfurt. She has been working as a professor for digital and international journalism at the Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart, the University of Dortmund and the Bundeswehr University Munich since 2015. She has long-standing experience in academic research, teaching, journalism and management of international media projects. In 2018, she has founded the organization Media | Competence | International, which offers international media consultancy and training in media literacy.

Bio

Andrei Richter

Andrei Richter is Researcher Professor at Comenius University in Bratislava and Adjunct Professor of the Webster University in Vienna. In 2011-22 he served as Director and a Senior Adviser at the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. An Austrian citizen, Richter holds university degrees in law, journalism and foreign languages, a doctorate of philology in Russia and a habilitated professorship in media studies from Slovakia.

Bio

Krisztina Rozgonyi

Dr Krisztina Rozgonyi is Senior Scientist at the Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies (CMC) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and a senior international media, telecommunication and IP legal and policy expert. She works with international and European organizations (such as the ITU/UN, UNESCO, Council of Europe, European Commission, World Bank InfoDev, OSCE and BBC MA), with national governments, and regulators as an adviser on media freedom, spectrum policy and digital platform governance.

Bio

Page photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash

Krisztina Rozgonyi’s photo by Monika Saulich.