Washington has slammed Lebanon’s Hezbollah after a Lebanese judge banned local and foreign media outlets in the country from interviewing the US ambassador for a year saying that her criticism of the party was a threat to social peace.
"Hezbollah's attempt to silence the Lebanese media is pathetic. To even think to use the judiciary to silence freedom of speech and freedom of the press is ludicrous,” the State Department said Saturday.
“We stand with the Lebanese people and against Hezbollah's censorship," it added in a statement.
Lebanon’s foreign minister, Nassif Hitti, summoned US Ambassador to Dorothy Shea over comments she made recently in which she criticized Hezbollah, state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Sunday.
Judge Mohammed Mazeh in the southern city of Tyre ruled on Saturday that Shea's comments to Al-Hadath television a day earlier had incited sectarian strife, and banned broadcasting interviews with her for a year.
Shea told the TV station that Hezbollah's behavior was preventing Lebanon from properly dealing with a deep economic crisis.
NNA said media that violate the judge's ban would be fined $200,000.
