Al Habtoor scraps Lebanon TV channel after physical threats

Reuters/Ashraf Mohammad Mohammad Alamra

• ‘Barrage of accusations, slander and threats’
• Criminal complaints lodged in Lebanon
• Search on for other homes for channel

Dubai’s Al Habtoor Group has cancelled plans to launch a TV channel from Lebanon after physical threats were made to the founder and staff.

Chairman and founder Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor said that the “lack of necessary security stability for investment … has left us no choice but to step back from this initiative and abandon the launch of our television station from Lebanon.”

The group claimed that it had faced “a barrage of orchestrated campaigns including accusations, slander and threats” since announcing on April 30 it would launch the new channel in Lebanon.

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It “has lodged criminal and civil complaints in Lebanon and internationally against those implicated in these campaigns and threats”, the company said.

Al Habtoor Group said it was looking at other countries from which to launch the new channel.

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The group had previously announced that the new channel would employ around 300 workers and that it was developing a 100,000 square metre “studio city” that would boost Lebanon’s “attractiveness as a prime location for international filmmakers”.

In a statement on April 8 Al Habtoor Group said that the new channel would offer “a diverse array of programming designed to elevate the human spirit and celebrate the countless success stories unfolding around us every day”.

The group has previously reported that its total investments in Lebanon were close to $1 billion and included luxury hotels, a shopping mall, and the country’s only theme park, “Habtoor Land”, which is currently closed.

In January Al Habtoor Group announced it had served a notice of dispute against the state of Lebanon for violating a 1999 bilateral investment treaty with the UAE by failing to protect Emirati investments. It claimed that restrictions imposed by Lebanon’s central bank had prevented Al Habtoor Group from repatriating $44 million. 

The group threatened at the time that “if the dispute is not resolved within six months and the Al Habtoor Group claims are not settled, it will be open to Al Habtoor Group to commence appropriate local and international legal proceedings against the Lebanese Republic in accordance with the treaty.”