VIDEO INTERVIEW: Our friend Rami Aysha just got released from jail. He’s a journalist, and Bureau Manager for Times Magazine Beirut. On August 30 he was investigating an arms smuggling story in the southern suburbs of Beirut when he got arrested by a local militia before handed over to the official intelligence that kept him for almost one month in various Lebanese prisons – without charge.
They didn’t treat him so well in jail. They broke his camera on his head, broke his finger, beat him up and shot bullets right next to his legs while he was blindfolded.
But Rami is a tough guy, and although he was a bit skinny after a month in prison, this incident will not shut him up. To bring a journalist like Rami on a jail tour of Lebanon is like throwing fuel on the fire.
As an advocate for press freedom in Lebanon Rami takes his arrest as an attack on everything that he believes in. When we told him to stay out of jail, he simply replied “I don’t think so”.
According to the Media Sustainability Index for 2010 / 2011, the freedom of press has dropped dramatically in this country over the past years. According to Rami, 2012 is the worst year in recent history. But 2famous.TV is still here to bring you the truth.
