With the caricatures of the Maronite patriarch and the Saudi king that appeared in the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan and on one of Beirut’s roadways, Lebanon’s crisis with the freedom of expression has returned to the fore in a country that claims to be an oasis for freedom in the region.

For more than 20 years, the Lebanese lawmakers who crafted the 1990 constitutional amendments have boasted that its preamble explicitly confirms that the “land of the cedars” is committed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that “the government shall embody these principles in all fields and areas without exception.”

Of course, this was not enough to protect any rights; soon after, Lebanon entered its 15-year phase of Syrian dominance. During that time, human rights violations were the norm in Beirut. The Lebanese government even resorted to exhuming centuries-old legal texts from the days of the Ottoman Empire which gave them the authority to arrest anyone “for acting or speaking in ways unauthorized by the government.” Despite this law’s obsolescence, it was nonetheless used to pursue and prosecute thousands of dissidents. After the Syrian army’s withdrawal from Lebanon on April 26, 2005, the Lebanese people believed that the status of human rights in their country would improve. However, government practices since have indicated the contrary.

On June 29, 2010 the Lebanese people were surprised to hear the news that the Lebanese judiciary had issued arrest warrants for three individuals for criticizing President Michel Suleiman on Facebook. Since then there has been a long series of odd, often incomprehensible violations of human rights which have regrettably extended into the artistic realms of cinema, theater, writing and journalism.