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Lebanese sports journalists in danger amid COVID-19 and a deteriorating economy

BEIRUT, October 18, 2020 - The situation in Lebanon regarding COVID-19 pandemic began to worsen since August, we are now recording a minimum of 1,300 cases per day with a marked increase in number of deaths for a small country with a population around 6.8 million.
However, the situation in Lebanon does not stop at the pandemic, but goes beyond to a suffocating economic and monetary crisis that is greatly affecting all sectors in the country.

SPORTS ACTIVITY
The Lebanese sport faced a great challenge when the Football Association launched its championship about two weeks ago in accordance with strict precautionary health protocol, and up to this moment the experience of the Football Association appears to be successful and cautious despite some emerging cases of coronavirus infections among participating players. Other sports and competitions are still suspended without any visualization of the return launch dates.

MEDIA AFFECTED

Lebanese journalists are suffering greatly from the consequences of COVID-19, as sports activities have almost completely stopped, and many media institutions have closed their doors or reduced the salaries of their employees into half and even third, noting that sports media sector was already falling apart due to awful economic conditions.
Frankly speaking, this profession in Lebanon has been in grave danger due to several factors, the most prominent of which is the government's negligence of this sector, which includes more than six hundred sports journalists comprising residents and expatriates, the official financial support is totally absent. It is no wonder that the budget of the Ministry of Sports is the lowest among all Lebanese ministries; we are the forgotten.

A LOSING BATTLE
The last decade has seen us lose three of the most important Lebanese newspapers, after they incurred great losses, and for more than seven years, the sports media sector has been suffering from the fluctuating economic situation in Lebanon. The struggle continued in a bigger and more severe way when crisis climaxed the last two years as a result of austerity, political corruption, interventionism, recession, sectarianism, unemployment. The 2020 Beirut explosions and COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the severity of this crisis, many media institutions have closed and many colleagues lost their jobs. As for those who were lucky enough to stay in their job, their salaries were cut in half and even to third, and was stripped of all their medical insurance privileges.

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