Lebanon's authorities have ordered a ban on the movie The Post because of director Steven Spielberg's associations with Israel, amid an intensifying climate of censorship in what has historically been one of the Arab world's freest countries.
The Censorship Committee of the General Security Directorate banned the film, due to open in Lebanon next week, in accordance with laws enforcing the Arab League's boycott of Israel, said directorate spokesperson Nabil Hanoun.
Spielberg, who is Jewish, was placed on the Arab League blacklist of sanctioned individuals after his foundation gave a $1.2 million donation to relief efforts in Israel during its 2006 war with Lebanon's Hizbollah movement. Most of Spielberg's subsequent films have, however, been shown in Lebanon without problems - except that his name was blacked out from the poster advertising The Adventures of Tintin.
Free speech advocates in Lebanon noted the irony of banning a movie whose plot promotes press freedoms. The Post, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, tells the story of the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham's decision to defy attempts by the courts to suppress reporting of the Pentagon Papers.
"Why is The Post on the chopping block?" asked Gino Raidy of the March advocacy group, on his blog. "Is it because it idolises journalists who stand up to the powers that be when they do wrong, and choose truth and justice over government bullying?"
