Lebanon PM closes Future TV
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 20 September 2019

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has suspended Future TV, the free-to-air channel established by his father Rafiq al-Hariri in 1993, due to ongoing financial troubles.

Employees at Future TV had recently taken strike action over unpaid wages, leaving the channel broadcasting only rerun programmes.

"It is with a sad heart that I announce today the decision to suspend the work at Future TV and settle the rights of the workers," Hariri said in a statement.

He added that the move would be temporary, pending the financial restructure of the channel, which has more than 300 employees and freelancers.

The Lebanese premier, who heads the Future Movement political party said the decision “ is not easy for me and for the public of the Future movement, nor for the generation of founders, worker and millions of Lebanese and Arab viewers, who accompanied the station for more than a quarter of a century”.

Hariri said his father, who was assassinated in 2005, “wanted Future TV to highlight Lebanon’s diversity, coexistence and passion for culture, freedom, openness and joy”.

The move follows Hariri’s decision earlier this to close the print edition of his family’s Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, turning it instead into a digital publication.