With the objective of instilling a culture of impunity and deceiving citizens as financial, administrative, and judicial appointments as well as municipal and parliamentary elections approach, some bankers and their powerful allies are leading a systematic campaign that seeks to invert narratives, falsify facts, and flood public opinion with misleading…

The phrase “shifting sands” could describe the current situation in Lebanon in general, and in Akkar Governorate in particular, following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria on 8 December 2024. Amidst expectations that the Syrian refugees who came to Lebanon when the Syrian crisis began in 2011 would…

Beirut, October 10, 2023   The ‘Coalition to Defend Freedom of Expression in Lebanon’ calls on Lebanese judicial authorities to conduct a serious investigation into the assault on protesters and journalists in downtown Beirut on Saturday, September 30, 2023. As Lebanon grapples with a dark economic, security, and political trajectory,…

On 19 October 2022, Tunisia’s government issued order no. 768, which slightly raised the minimum daily wage “guaranteed” to women working in agriculture from TND16 [USD5] in 2021 to TND17.7 [USD5.5].   This improvement, which came on the heels of International Day of Rural Women, is commendable in principle. However,…

In a session held on May 2, the government adopted the bill regulating the judicial judiciary. This development marks a new chapter in a years-long debate over the means of achieving judicial independence and, by extension, reforming the judicial judiciary. It also comes as part of the implementation of the…

Caretaker Minister of Culture Mohammad Mortada recently announced that he has referred to the Council of Ministers a bill to punish the promotion of homosexuality and gender transition, which he himself drafted. This step followed a week of social media buzz about the minister’s extreme stances opposing the screening of…

On 29 May 2024, the Council of Ministers issued a decision extending, on an “exceptional basis”, the authorization for five cement companies to extract the raw materials required to meet domestic market needs for one year. The decision was proposed by the ministers of industry and environment and based on…