Lebanon

Status: Prisoner of conscience

A reporter who works for Lebanese television station New TV, Firas Hatoum was arrested on December 19, 2006, following the broadcast of an investigative report he helped assemble by video taping the home of one of the witnesses in the assassination of former PM Rafiq Hariri.

Mr. Hatoum was arrested with his two colleagues Abdel-Azim Khayat and Mohammed Barbar, his cameraman and driver, respectively. According to reports, the three men had the permission of Mohammed Zuheir Siddiq (the owner of the apartment), as well as the building manager, security guard, and a plainclothes policeman outside the building, to enter the apartment for their news report. New TV managed to produce a recording of the telephone conversation in which Mr. Siddiq gives Mr. Hatoum permission to enter.