BEIRUT: Lebanon’s oldest English-language newspaper The Daily Star on Wednesday said in a tweet that it would be temporarily suspending updating its website due to “circumstances beyond our control.”

Considered the go-to newspaper for Western journalists working in the country, it has been severely affected by the country’s financial crisis.

We regret to inform our readers that due to circumstances beyond our control, we have temporarily suspended updating our website.
We thank you for your understanding.

— The Daily Star Lebanon (@DailyStarLeb) October 13, 2021

In February last year, the paper announced the temporary suspension of its print edition because of financial challenges but the version of the newspaper has not been published since.

Founded in 1952, The Daily Star became one of the first English-language newspapers in the Arab world. It stopped printing during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war but relaunched again in 1996.

The daily is not the only paper in the country to fold, temporarily or otherwise. Soon after the Beirut port blast, the country’s oldest newspaper An-Nahar halted updating its English website.

It is a private newspaper owned by the family of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri who, according to press watchdog Reporters Without Borders, had also halted operations at his Future TV satellite channel in late 2019 after 26 years of broadcasting, citing financial reasons.

Two years ago, the daily Al-Mustaqbal, another one of Hariri’s assets, ceased its print edition and became a digital newspaper. In 2017, Lebanon’s leading daily As-Safir went out of print after 42 years of publication, while another daily Al-Anwar closed down a year later.