CISH Center in Byblos

CISH

The problematic between the freedom of individuals and the freedom of society? Is the individual entitled to express his opinion as he wants in social media? Where are the limits of his freedom? Some say that free speech, and the debate about the extent to which it should be moderated, if at all, is one which continues to polarize opinion. The argument surrounding the limits of free speech focuses primarily on social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter, who are coming under increasing pressure from critics to prevent so called ‘trolls’ from having a platform to abuse and offend people on their sites. Instead of the internet being a forum for open dialogue and discourse, opponents argue that too often free speech online actually takes the form of 'Threatening, homophobic, racist, sexist abuse', which can actually stifle debate and lead to censorship. 

Others of free speech supporter say that the internet was envisaged as a domain that facilitated the free dissemination of ideas and information across borders – with the aim of giving everyone the opportunity to express themselves freely without limit, People should be free to write and publish whatever they want online, they declare “The bottom line is this: too much liberty is always, but always better than too little“.

These and other questions were discussed by researchers, students from schools and universities, teachers of national education, trainers in this field, activists in civil society organizations and reporters during the workshop on 'Community responsibility and the ethics of social media communication', which was conducted in cooperation with the Centre Internationale des Sciences de l'Homme - CISH from August 30 -31, 2018 in Byblos. 

Workshop Panel

CISH

There is no effective censorship in Lebanon for the electronic communication. The information that were given to the participants in addition to the questions that were asked and the answers to them and the discussions that was held during the workshop has led to the preparation of recommendations. The one of the most important recommendations that the participants submitted to the government is that media law in Lebanon has become old and dates back to the sixties and is no longer suitable for modern media. Therefore, the government is required to update this law to keep pace with the rapid and technological development of the social media. CISH published the recommendations on the media and posted them on its website.