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Outlook

V ol T , MNarch vuesday ol. XLI, XlIv , on. o5.27, 4 2012 VTol . XLIV, No. 17 1, 2011 ueSday , november

The IndependenT STudenT publIcaTIon SInce 1949

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Weam Alawar Staff Writer So what happened to the Stop LIRA campaign that was launched last week? After the Lebanese Internet Regulation Act surfaced in a cabinet meeting earlier this month, the online community launched a full-scale campaign against it. The campaign has led to two major changes that happened during the week: On one hand, Minister on Information Walid Daouq has asked for a meeting with activists in the Stop LIRA campaign in order to listen to the needs of the online community and address the fears of the activists. Abir Ghattas and Mireille Raad from the Ontornet movement (Ontornet. org), a movement that surfaced due to the low quality of the Internet in Lebanon, attended the meeting along with Julnar Doueik from AltCity (AltCity.me) with the minister. During the meeting the minister made a lot of clarifications that have succeeded at convincing the activists, at least for now. Minister Daouq claimed that the law makes it optional for whoever wants to register his/her blog in the ministry. The registration is not a form of license at all, but instead label. In addition, the law will be further discussed in order to organize electronic

procedures, for the minister admitted that LIRA is not the perfect law for the job. On the other hand, activist Imad Bazzi (trella.org), has taken the initiative to contact parliamentary forces that would help back the movement up to prevent the law from being issued. Imad is known to be against sectarianism and all the political sphere that is governing the country, yet he believed that defeating this law is of enough priority to contact the current political authorities. In a post available on his blog, Imad explains how he first attempted to contact PM Najib Mikati, but failed since the latter was not following him on twitter anymore. So instead, he sent a “direct message” to PM Saad Hariri who was following him on twitter. The following quotes the conversation that happened between Mr. Bazzi and PM Hariri (Taken directly from twitter): March 14 - Bazzi: Your Excellency, we need your help to stop LIRA (Lebanese Internet Regulation Act) this law strains freedom of expression online Hariri: Hi Imad, can you tell me more about LIRA, for sure I am against any regulation on

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‫اوﺗﻠﻮك‬ source: Trella.org

LIRA Stopped?

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Russell Peters laughs up Lebanon Camelia Harb Member at Large Comedy is something entirely subjective. While it is true that many will chuckle and enjoy a good tumble down a snow packed hill or an old-fashioned knock-knock joke, whether or not something is perceived as funny can largely differ among the masses. Such was true of one of the most anticipated events this year: a visit to Lebanon by none other than Russell Peters himself, a widely popular comedian known for his highly stereotypical, and rather amusing, repertoire of material. Performing on March 24 and 25, in the Platea venue hall of Jounieh, Peters brought to the stage new material reflecting his experiences of family, work, and the Middle

East. Before Peters entertained the crowd, early birds to the stands were kept engaged by Spinbad, DJ to many of Peters’ shows. Mixing various genres and styles from the time that the doors opened at eight until the show started an hour later, the hall was filled with pounding beats and old school melodies. Amusingly, the music often faded out to a message indicating that all audio and video recording were not allowed and that the persecutor should “save themselves the embarrassment” of being caught and publicly escorted from the room.

Continued on page 4 www.aub.edu.lb/outlook

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