The Challenging Censorship Program is on a mission to promote freedom of expression and positive dialogue in Lebanon.
“I never thought I could have a constructive conversation with someone who disagrees with me. However, after the training, I was eager to listen to someone with different opinions rather than fight them.”
Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right that allows individuals to express their thoughts and ideas without fear of censorship or punishment. Unfortunately, censorship practices continue to persist in many countries, including Lebanon. To address this issue, the Challenging Censorship Program was established with the aim of promoting freedom of expression and positive dialogue in Lebanon.
The program has worked on building the capacity of youth members that have joined from different parts of Tripoli on training of trainers (TOT) and thematic concepts of freedom of expression such as countering fake news, pluralism in dialogue, and non-violent communication. After the TOT sessions, the youth members outreached for attendees to join the awareness sessions on freedom of expression and finalized the Freedom of Expression and Dialogue Handbook addressing those topics through introducing fundamental tools and skills, exercises, and strategies that are used to lead community awareness sessions.
Moreover, in the aim of discussing different freedom of expression concepts and state censorship tactics and strategies, MARCH organized a Grand Debate Tournament, where youth from Beirut and Tripoli discussed tolerance, acceptance of differences and censorship in Lebanon.
At the end, the program’s holistic approach contributed to the acceptance of differences of opinions of the youth members and raised awareness on the right and limitations of freedom of expression and the context of the current censorship practices to the local youth communities. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right that allows individuals to express their thoughts and ideas without fear of censorship or punishment. Unfortunately, censorship practices continue to persist in many countries, including Lebanon. To address this issue, the Challenging Censorship Program was established with the aim of raising awareness about censorship practices in Lebanon and advocating for freedom of expression.
“I learnt that freedom of expression is not a taboo, but it has restrictions and values that we need to abide with so everyone’s rights are respected.”
