GREAT UPDATE:
(February 1 updating the below): The Daily Star is back after two lost weeks! (See below.) Their own explanation (not very detailed I'm afraid) of their rebirth is here. I would hope that even those who don't like their politics will be glad to see them back.
[Original Post]: I mentioned in passing yesterday that the Beirut Daily Star has been offline and out of print due to financial/legal issues. More on the subject here (IHT) and here (Al-Sharq al-Awsat).
The Daily Star has long been one of the most reliable and balanced English-language newspapers in the Middle East. I think most of us who follow the region from a distance will miss its website in particular. It wasn't just for Lebanese news, either. If it fails to make a comeback it will be a blow to English-language journalism in the region, though newspapers everywhere are suffering.
UPDATE: Just a note on following Lebanon with the Daily Star offline: most of the Lebanese press is online of course, so for those who read Arabic it's no problem, and there are French papers like L'Orient-Le Jour and others, but for English-only readers the lack of new postings at the Daily Star website leaves few options. One however is Naharnet, an English site from the respected Arabic daily Al-Nahar. If that Maronite owned newspaper's too pro-Western for you, there's always the English site of Hizbullah's al-Manar TV, one of the last places to still dateline things "Zionist Entity." I am not urging you to rely upon it for balanced opinion: the fact that I just accessed the site from my home computer probably has enough people checking into me just now.
Friday, January 30, 2009
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