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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
Lifestyle
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat

Lebanon’s Media Crisis Reaches Future TV

A general view shows Beirut's Corniche, a seaside promenade(R) at sunset in Beirut, Lebanon May 3, 2016. REUTERS/Alia Haju

Future TV’s programs have stopped for the third consecutive day over a strike carried out by the Lebanese channel’s employees to protest the delay in the payment of their wages.

Lebanese media outlets have in recent years been suffering from financial difficulties, causing the closure of several institutions.

On Thursday, staff of Future TV, which his affiliated with Prime Minister Saad Hariri, held a strike for the third day in a row, stopping all programs, an unprecedented move since the station was established in 1993 by slain ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

"This is the first time such a wide movement of this kind has taken place," the employee, who asked not to be named, told Agence France Presse.

Future TV owes its staff "more than 16 months worth of wages" after years of irregular or incomplete payments due to a financial crisis, the employee said.

"The situation got worse around a year and a half ago, with employees being paid only a percentage of their monthly salaries in a sporadic and irregular manner," the employee said.

In January, the Hariri family's Al-Mustaqbal newspaper issued its last print version, 20 years after it was established.

Several media outlets have fired employees over lack of funding.

A series of prominent dailies have also disappeared from print over the past three years due to funding shortages.

End of 2016, As Safir daily went out of print after 42 years.

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