“Journalists in Lebanon live the crisis twice”

During the interview, Elsy Moufarrej paused to describe a sound that has become part of daily life in Lebanon. 

“In this very moment, I can hear a surveillance drone that can be heard,” she said. “Dealing with this sound day and the night is deeply discomforting.” 

So said Elsy Moufarrej, president of the Independent Journalists’ Union in Lebanon, in a conversation with Jesper Højberg, Executive Director of IMS (International Media Support), on the realities facing journalists as Israel’s renewed war on Lebanon deepens displacement, destruction and attacks on the press. 

For Elsy, the war is not something journalists cover from a distance. They report on it while living through it themselves. 

“Journalists actually live this crisis twice,” Elsy said. “Once as journalists covering it, and once as citizens suffering through it.” 

Since the renewed Israeli offensive on Lebanon begun on 2 March 2026, the country has entered another phase of war, displacement, destruction and fear. Entire villages along the southern border have been demolished. More than one million people have been displaced. Journalists and media workers have been killed, injured, displaced, threatened and left to work in conditions where even wearing a “PRESS” vest is a risk. 

This was the reality at the centre of the conversation: how to protect journalists when the crisis they are covering is not only professional but also deeply personal. 

For Højberg, the question was how solidarity can translate into concrete support. 

“The more devastating the political situation is,” he said, “the more important it is that as individuals and as organisations, we focus on the things that we can influence.” 

In Lebanon today, one of those things is helping journalists stay safe, continue working and document what is happening around them. 

Like everyone else in Lebanon, the country’s journalists are feeling its devastating impact on their own lives and bodies. Some have lost homes. Some have been displaced. Some have lost relatives. Some have had to report on the killing of their own colleagues. Others are working without proper salaries, without institutional protection and without mental health support. 

“We have many journalists that are displaced,” Moufarrej said. “Some of them have lost their home, and some of them are really suffering mentally because they had to cover how some colleagues had been killed during this war.” 

A recent needs assessment by the Independent Journalists’ Union found that 98 percent of surveyed journalists had been displaced, while almost nine out of ten had received no psychological support despite repeated exposure to trauma linked to war reporting. 

A union responding in a collapsing environment

The Independent Journalists’ Union in Lebanon emerged after the October 2019 uprising when people took to the streets after banking restrictions, currency collapse, rising unemployment, inflation and poverty pushed the country into deep economic and social turmoil. The Union was created to respond to a clear gap: independent journalists, freelancers and other media workers had no credible structure to defend their rights, protect them or represent them in a politically captured and collapsing media landscape. 

Today, the Union has more than 400 members and is Lebanon’s sole representative within the International Federation of Journalists. It works on legal defence, direct protection, crisis response, documentation and advocacy on two main tracks, first pursuing justice and accountability for journalists and second, on the ongoing final discussions on the new media law. Much of this work is done with limited resources and largely on a voluntary or part-time basis. 

The day before the interview, a freelance photojournalist was arrested in Beirut while filming police activity near tents for displaced people. The Union intervened. 

“When we interfered, it took us about ten minutes to have her released,” said Moufarrej. “They know that we have access to and credibility vis a vis the highest authorities.”  

Such interventions are not a substitute for structural protection or justice. It is protection in difficult conditions: inevitably imperfect, urgent and often negotiated case by case. But they show why collective representation matters. In a context where many journalists, especially freelancers, stand alone, the Union offers a point of contact, pressure, legal support and public visibility. 

Covering war while being targeted 

For journalists in Lebanon, the risks come from many directions. 

They work in a highly polarised society. They face hostility from local communities when covering sensitive areas. They face pressure from political actors and security forces. They also face the direct threat of Israeli attacks. 

Moufarrej describes the impossible calculation journalists are having to make in the field: 

“Our colleagues are not sure about whether to use their personal protection equipment with a ‘press’ sign or not,” she said.  “Using a ‘press’ sign might make Israel go after them. The dilemma is: Will it really protect me? Or will it make me a target?” 

Eventually, she said, many still wear it. But the uncertainty remains. 

“In the end, they will use it,” she said, “but we are constantly dealing with this uncertainty and pressure on journalist.” 

Since October 2023, 22 journalists and media workers have been killed in Lebanon, according to Samir Kassir Foundation Database. The Union is documenting attacks and building cases to support accountability efforts. 

For Højberg, this connects directly to IMS’ own history of working in conflict settings. The better organised journalists are, he reflected, the more they can document atrocities and support one another in moments of danger. 

In Lebanon, this is exactly the role the Union playing. 

“On the documentation level, starting in 2023, we have built very strong cases”, Moufarrej said. “We collect the evidence, we facilitate access of international media like Reuters and the Guardian, and we facilitate their contact with the families of the victims and the survivors.” 

In addition to IMS, the Union works with international human rights and press freedom organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Federation of Journalists. It also works with journalists and media outlets investigating attacks. 

During the war, the Union has trained journalists to document attacks on journalists. This work matters because documentation is the first step toward justice. Without it, violations disappear into the noise of war. 

The long road to accountability 

Moufarrej underlines that achieving justice is not easy. 

Lebanon is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Union has been pushing the Lebanese government to give the ICC jurisdiction to investigate war crimes committed since October 2023. But this has not happened. 

Moufarrej points to both internal and external barriers. Internally, political actors fear what such a step could mean for them. Externally, there is concern over the reaction of powerful states, including the United States (who does not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction). 

Still, she rejects the idea that accountability is impossible. 

“It is difficult, but it is not a lost cause,” she said. “We need to be patient, to work on a strategic level, point by point. We will get there, not in one or two years, maybe not even  in ten years, but we’ll get there one day.” 

This patience is not passive. It is a strategy. The Union is building evidence, networks, legal options and pressure. It is also trying to find entry points through European jurisdictions where cases related to war crimes may be possible. 

Accountability may take years. Protection cannot wait. 

In addition to its strategic advocacy and documentation work, the Union provides practical support to journalists working in the field. This includes safety awareness training, physical safety guidance, digital safety advice, personal protective equipment, connectivity tools as well as coordination with other actors, such as Reporters Without Borders and the Samir Kassir Foundation. 

“Especially the freelancer journalists do not have anybody to protect them,” Moufarrej said. The Union also supports mental health care. Around 25 journalists have received support for therapy sessions. For Moufarrej, this is not an optional service. Rather, “it’s a matter of surviving this attack and continuing,” she said. 

The Union has also helped provide housing support to and alternative workspaces for displaced journalists. In some cases, it has coordinated with local actors, the ICRC and United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to try to evacuate journalists trapped in areas under bombardment. 

“We succeeded once when a group of journalists had been trapped,” Moufarrej said. 

But in another case, she added, “we didn’t succeed because the Israeli side didn’t accept to let the emergency team get in and take her out.” 

This is the reality of journalist protection in wartime. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. But for journalists under fire, having a structure that can intervene, coordinate and advocate can be the difference between being visible and being left alone. 

What is at stake 

In Lebanon today, the stakes are not only about journalists’ safety, although that alone is urgent. They are also about whether people can still access reliable information during war. 

The country is facing mass displacement, sectarian tension, institutional collapse and a flood of unverified and inflammatory content across legacy and social media. In such moments, independent journalism is not a luxury. It is a public need. 

It helps people understand what is happening. It counters rumours. It documents violations. It gives citizens a way to see beyond propaganda and fear. 

But journalism cannot do this if journalists are left alone. 

Moufarrej’s message to those who care about press freedom is clear: invest in core support, not only projects. 

“What independent media outlets and the union need is core support and core funding, not project funding,” she said. “With project funding, all the media will work on the agenda that is interesting for the donor and not the agenda that really matters.” 

Project funding, she said, often adds pressure on exhausted teams. It pushes them to produce reports or videos tied to donor priorities, while what they really need is the ability to sustain their work, pay people, respond to emergencies and decide their own priorities. 

“What should really shift is how we help outlets to sustain their work,” she said. 

IMS support in a time of war 

Since the renewal of hostilities, IMS has adjusted its work in Lebanon to respond to the immediate needs of independent media and journalists. 

This has included emergency support to partners, wellbeing support, equipment and adjustments to project’s milestones, targets and timelines. IMS has also been actively engaged in coordination with partners and other stakeholders to better understand emerging needs and avoid fragmented responses.  

Entering into a partnership with the Lebanese Independent Journalists’ Union is part of this wider response. It reflects a strategic shift towards strengthening the structures that protect journalists across the information ecosystem. 

As Højberg said during the conversation, “Solidarity is important, but what matters most to those on the ground is the support we can actually provide.” 

For Moufarrej, support is also about helping the Union move beyond operating permanent emergency mode: 

“When we started working with IMS, we felt we have this partner that will help us not just financially, but how to build a strategic view,” she said. 

The Union already had clear priorities: legal defence, documentation, accountability, emergency response and media reform. But the war has made every need urgent at once. 

What IMS can help with, Moufarrej said, is the shift “from dealing with the day-by-day action to a more strategic perspective.” 

It is also about continuity: 

“How to maintain the work of our union and the continuity of our work — this is what IMS can help us with,” she said. 

In a country where independent journalism is being tested by war, financial collapse and political pressure at the same time, continuity is not a technical matter. It is the foundation that allows independent journalism to endure.  

“We have the sickness of hope” 

Despite everything, Moufarrej still speaks of hope. Not as optimism. Not as denial. But as a form of resistance: 

“To quote [the Palestinian poet] Mahmoud Darwish,” she said, “we have the sickness of hope. Hope is what drives us to continue living, instead of staying at home and getting depressed.” 

What gives her hope is the growing trust among journalists. More journalists are reaching out to the Union. More are supporting each other. The community is becoming stronger. 

“When we started, we were practically alone,” she said. “And now the Lebanese government must take our documentation and add it to the centralised documentation.” 

It is, she said, “a long path.” 

But she ends with the same conviction she brings to the rest of the conversation. 

“We’ll get there.”