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I learned that Information Minister Paul Morcos issued a verbal directive last week, after the appearance of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, directing it to both the National News Agency and Lebanon Television, demanding that they stop using the word “resistance” when talking about Hezbollah, and be content with calling it “Hezbollah” in official coverage.
This media trend comes in the context of the recent decision issued by the Council of Ministers, which deemed the party’s military activities illegal, in a move considered an extension of the growing government debate on the issue of weapons and the limitation of security and military decisions to the state.
The Council of Ministers discussed the arms file in two consecutive sessions during the past months. In a previous session, the Council affirmed the principle of confining weapons to the Lebanese state, and asked the army command to begin implementing the plan related to confiscating weapons, especially in the areas north of the Litani River, while using all means to ensure its implementation.
In the last session, the Council took a step further, announcing the immediate ban on all security and military activities carried out by Hezbollah, considering them illegal, and stressing that the decision on war and peace is exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese state. He also asked the military and security services to take the necessary measures to prevent any military operations or the launching of missiles or drones from Lebanese territory, and to arrest violators in accordance with the applicable laws.
The decision also stressed the obligation of the party to hand over its weapons to the Lebanese state, and to limit its activity to political work within the constitutional and legal frameworks, with the aim of consolidating the state’s sovereignty and extending its authority over the entire Lebanese territory.
According to the data, the directive aims to unify terminology in government media in line with the government’s official position, without going into political discussions, but rather in the context of adopting descriptions that are consistent with recent government decisions.
Information indicates that Morcos’ step comes within the framework of organizing the official media discourse to reflect the decisions of the Council of Ministers, while ensuring that the approach remains within an institutional and administrative framework away from political debates, at a time when there is a renewed debate about the status of weapons outside state institutions and the role of the official media in keeping pace with the trends approved by the government in this regard.
