NEW YORK: Student editors at the Columbia Law Review say they were pressured by the journal’s board of directors to halt publication of an academic article written by a Palestinian human rights lawyer that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and upholding an apartheid regime.
When the editors refused the request and published the piece Monday morning, the board — made up of faculty and alumni from Columbia University’s law school — shut down the law review’s website entirely. It remained offline Tuesday evening, a static homepage informing visitors the domain “is under maintenance.”
The episode at one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious legal journals marks the latest flashpoint in an ongoing debate about academic speech that has deeply divided students, staff and college administrators since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Several editors at the Columbia Law Review described the board’s intervention as an unprecedented breach of editorial independence at the periodical, which is run by students at Columbia Law School. The board of directors oversees the nonprofit’s finances but has historically played no role in selecting pieces.
In a letter sent to student editors Tuesday and shared with The Associated Press, the board of directors said it was concerned that the article, titled “Nakba as a Legal Concept,” had not gone through the “usual processes of review or selection for articles at the Law Review, and in particular that a number of student editors had been unaware of its existence.”
“In order to preserve the status quo and provide student editors some window of opportunity to review the piece, as well as provide time for the Law Review to determine how to proceed, we temporarily suspended the website,” the letter continued.
Those involved in soliciting and editing the piece said they had followed a rigorous review process, even as they acknowledged taking steps to forestall expected blowback by limiting the number of students aware of the article.
In the piece, Rabea Eghbariah, a Harvard doctoral candidate, accuses Israel of a litany of “crimes against humanity,” arguing for a new legal framework to “encapsulate the ongoing structure of subjugation in Palestine and derive a legal formulation of the Palestinian condition.”
Eghbariah said in a text message that the suspension of the law journal’s website should be seen as “a microcosm of a broader authoritarian repression taking place across US campuses.”
Editors said they voted overwhelmingly in December to commission a piece on Palestinian legal issues, then formed a smaller committee — open to all of the publication’s editorial leadership — that ultimately accepted Eghbariah’s article. He had submitted an earlier version of the article to the Harvard Law Review, which the publication later elected not to publish amid internal backlash, according to a report in The Intercept.
Anticipating similar controversy and worried about a leak of the draft, the committee of editors working on the article did not upload it to a server that is visible to the broader membership of the law journal and to some administrators. The piece was not shared until Sunday with the full staff of the Columbia Law Review — something that editorial staffers said was not uncommon.
“We’ve never circulated a particular article in advance,” said Sohum Pal, an articles editor at the publication. “So the idea that this is all over a process concern is a total lie. It’s very transparently content based.”
In their letter to students, the board of directors said student editors who didn’t work on the piece should have been given an opportunity to read it and raise concerns.
“Whatever your views of this piece, it will clearly be controversial and potentially have an impact on all associated with the Review,” they wrote.
Those involved in the publishing of the article said they heard from a small group of students over the weekend who expressed concerns about threats to their careers and safety if it were to be published.
Some alluded to trucks that circled Columbia and other campuses following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, labeling students as antisemites for their past or current affiliation with groups seen as hostile to Israel.
The letter from the board also suggested that a statement be appended to the piece stating the article had not been subject to a standard review process or made available for all student editors to read ahead of time.
Erika Lopez, an editor who worked on the piece, said many students were adamantly opposed to the idea, calling it “completely false to imply that we didn’t follow the standard process.”
She said student editors had spoken regularly since they began receiving pushback from the board on Sunday and remained firmly in support of the piece.
When they learned the website had been shuttered Monday morning, they quickly uploaded Eghbariah’s article to a publicly accessible website. It has since spread widely across social media.
“It’s really ironic that this piece probably got more attention than anything we normally published,” Lopez added, “even after they nuked the website.”
After publishing an article critical of Israel, Columbia Law Review’s website is shut down by board
After publishing an article critical of Israel, Columbia Law Review’s website is shut down by board
Afghan Taliban vow to implement media ban on images of living things
KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban morality ministry pledged Monday to implement a law banning news media from publishing images of all living things, with journalists told the rule will be gradually enforced.
It comes after the Taliban government recently announced legislation formalising their strict interpretations of Islamic law that have been imposed since they swept to power in 2021.
“The law applies to all Afghanistan... and it will be implemented gradually,” the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV) Saiful Islam Khyber told AFP, adding that officials would work to persuade people that images of living things are against Islamic law.
“Coercion has no place in the implementation of the law,” he said.
“It’s only advice, and convincing people these things are really contrary to sharia (law) and must be avoided.”
The new law detailed several rules for news media, including banning the publication of images of all living things and ordering outlets not to mock or humiliate Islam, or contradict Islamic law.
Aspects of the new law have not yet been strictly enforced.
Taliban officials continue to regularly post photos of people on social media.
“Until now, regarding the articles of the law related to media, there are ongoing efforts in many provinces to implement it but that has not started in all provinces,” Khyber said.
He added “work has started” in the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and the neighboring Helmand province, as well as northern Takhar.
Journalists in Kandahar told AFP on Monday they had not received any statement from the ministry or been stopped by morality police for taking photos and videos.
In central Ghazni province on Sunday, PVPV officials summoned local journalists and told them the morality police would start gradually implementing the law.
They advised visual journalists to take photos from further away and film fewer events “to get in the habit,” a journalist who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisal told AFP.
Reporters in Maidan Wardak province were also told the rules would be implemented gradually in a similar meeting.
Television and pictures of living things were banned across the country under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, but a similar edict has so far not been broadly imposed since their return to power.
When the Taliban authorities seized control of the country after a two-decade-long insurgency against foreign-backed governments, Afghanistan had 8,400 media employees.
Only 5,100 remain in the profession, including 560 women, according to media industry sources.
Afghanistan has also slipped from 122nd place to 178th out of 180 countries in a press freedom ranking compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Lebanese demand justice for journalist killed by Israeli tank fire
- CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg said that “in spite of extensive evidence of a war crime, a year on from the attack, Israel has faced zero accountability for the targeting of journalists”
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese journalists and activists Sunday demanded justice for Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed a year earlier in what probes said was Israeli tank fire while covering cross-border clashes in south Lebanon.
Two strikes in quick succession on October 13, 2023 killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, 37, and wounded six other journalists including AFP photographer Christina Assi and video journalist Dylan Collins.
Assi later had a leg amputated and spent five months in intensive care in hospital as a result of the attack.
Two investigations have pointed to an Israeli tank being behind the attack, but Israel has denied it targets “civilians, including journalists.”
Friends and acquaintances on Sunday shared photos Abdallah had taken, or pictures of him.
Legal Agenda, a non-governmental organization, posted on social media: “A year after the killing of photographer Issam Abdullah, Israeli impunity continues.”
Lebanese rights group Maharat called on the international community to “implement treaties, resolutions and commitments to protect journalist.”
In a post on X, journalist Salman Andary demanded “justice for Issam and for all the victims of this crime.”
Economist Jad Chaaban wrote on X: “Israel killed... Abdallah, by shelling a clearly marked press spot in the South of Lebanon.”
“The Israeli army is still carrying out mass executions until today with total impunity,” he said.
After nearly a year of cross-border fire, Israel on September 23 escalated its campaign targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
More than 1,200 people have since been killed in Lebanon, according to a tally of official figures, and more than a million have been displaced.
On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists decried a lack of accountability for Israel over the killing of Abdallah.
CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg said that “in spite of extensive evidence of a war crime, a year on from the attack, Israel has faced zero accountability for the targeting of journalists.”
The journalists were working near the border village of Alma Al-Shaab in an area that has been the site of near-daily clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.
An AFP investigation in December pointed to a tank shell only used by the Israeli army being fired in the attack.
A separate Reuters probe, including initial findings from the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), found two Israeli tank rounds fired from the same position across the border were used.
TNO’s final report said an Israeli tank crew then “likely” opened fire on them with a machine gun.
An Israeli military spokesman said after the strike: “We are very sorry for the journalist’s death,” adding that Israel was “looking into” the incident, without taking responsibility.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia strengthen media cooperation with new framework agreement
- Safeguarding supply chains ‘more crucial than ever,’ Saleh Al-Jasser says in opening remarks
- Inaugural forum will feature 130 speakers and 80 exhibitors from 30 countries
DOHA: Saudi Arabia and Qatar signed on Sunday a framework agreement for cooperation and news exchange between the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) and Qatar News Agency (QNA).
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of a meeting between Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Saudi Arabia's Minister of Media in Doha.
The meeting between Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and Salman Al-Dossary, which was also attended by Chairman of Qatar Media Corporation Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al-Thani and Saudi ambassador to Qatar Prince Mansour bin Khalid bin Farhan, focused on enhancing cooperation between the two nations, particularly in the media sector.
During their discussions, both sides emphasized the importance of deepening relations and expanding joint media initiatives.
The agreement was signed by Acting President of SPA, Ali Alzaid, and Director-General of QNA, Ahmed bin Saeed Al Rumaihi.
It will aim to foster collaboration through a range of initiatives, including training programs in editing and photography, the promotion of modern technologies and artificial intelligence in news production, and the exchange of expertise, SPA reported.
The framework also seeks to strengthen ties by facilitating visits between the agencies and creating news and photographic content that highlights achievements, events, and national occasions in both countries, SPA added.
Venezuela cancels passports of dozens of activists and journalists, FT reports
- People have had their passports confiscated by authorities while attempting to board flights from the country’s main airport, the newspaper reported, citing the rights group
CARACAS: Venezuela has canceled the passports of dozens of journalists and activists since President Nicolas Maduro claimed a re-election victory, part of what rights groups say is an intensifying campaign of repression against the authoritarian president’s opponents, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.
At least 40 people, mostly journalists and human rights activists have had their passports annulled without explanation, the newspaper reported, citing Caracas-based rights group Laboratorio de Paz.
The group warned that the number of people who have had their passports canceled is likely to be much higher due to Venezuelans’ fear of reporting cases, the FT said.
Laboratorio de Paz could not be immediately reached for the report.
People have had their passports confiscated by authorities while attempting to board flights from the country’s main airport, the newspaper reported, citing the rights group.
Unlike murder or torture, which have a higher political cost, the government has found that passport cancelation is an effective way of neutralizing and muffling critical voices with minimal effort, the newspaper reported citing Rafael Uzcátegui, co-director of the rights group.
The report comes after Maduro was proclaimed the winner of the South American nation’s disputed July vote by electoral and judicial authorities, a claim rejected as false by the opposition.
Leading Lebanese daily goes pan-Arab amid ongoing war
- Group CEO Nayla Tueni leads digital transformation from newspaper to ‘viewspaper’
- We’ve transitioned from being a traditional newspaper to what we call a ‘viewspaper.’ From Monday to Thursday, we publish a compact edition, while Friday features a more in-depth weekend edition, covering culture, lifestyle, and other topics
LONDON: Amid escalating conflict in Lebanon, Annahar chief Nayla Tueni has announced the relaunch of her media group, unveiling a bold shift to become a pan-Arab media leader with a growing presence across the region.
The publisher of the iconic Arabic-language daily Annahar, which marked its 92nd anniversary this year, is embracing a “digital-first” strategy, transforming from a newspaper to a “viewspaper.”
Despite the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict, which began as cross-border clashes on Oct. 8, 2023, and intensified into a widespread Israeli offensive starting Sept. 23, the Beirut-headquartered Annahar remains committed to its plan to relaunch its services against all odds.
Tueni, Annahar’s editor-in-chief and group CEO, told Arab News that the idea for the transformation and relaunch was conceived in January, with implementation efforts beginning in April.
FASTFACTS
• In addition to its daily print newspaper, Annahar Media runs two websites – Annahar and Annahar Al-Arabi – while also managing a video platform and active social media channels.
• Annahar’s teams are diligently working to produce more podcasts, audios, and videos that resonate with a broader audience – talking to people from different places around the Arab world.
“The goal of Annahar’s refoundation is to reach a wider audience,” she said. “We’ve enhanced the website to offer a seamless, unified experience across all platforms — whether you’re reading the newspaper, following us on social media, or watching videos on our platform, we want you to enjoy the same cohesive experience throughout.”
In addition to its daily print newspaper, Annahar Media runs two websites, Annahar and Annahar Al-Arabi, while also managing a video platform and active social media channels.
Tueni highlighted that her company worked with Innovation Media Consulting, a global consultancy firm, to revamp Annahar’s digital products, rebuild the newsroom using cutting-edge AI tools and workflows, and design a new commercial strategy.
Other renovation partners include the marketing communications group Impact BBDO, the engineering company Obermeyer Middle East, and the digital agency Born Interactive.
“In addition,” Tueni said, “we put significant effort into refining the content, reorganizing the structure, and rethinking how teams collaborate — even how to think in a different way to be from Lebanon to the Arab world, present in the whole Arab world.
“We’ve transitioned from being a traditional newspaper to what we call a ‘viewspaper.’ From Monday to Thursday, we publish a compact edition, while Friday features a more in-depth weekend edition, covering culture, lifestyle, and other topics.
“We provide deeper insights — the why, the what, and the what’s next — whether it’s politics, health, lifestyle, culture, technology, climate change, or any other issue,” she said.
The renovation and relaunch of Annahar have brought many challenges, largely caused by the ongoing conflict in Lebanon.
Describing the relaunch as “the bridge between the past and the future,” Tueni said that working toward this milestone “has been incredibly difficult because, first, we are in Lebanon and facing a lot of challenges.
“During the war, it has been tough to cover global events on little to no sleep, while also hearing the bombs, to check in on all colleagues who may have fled their homes, all while continuing to work on the content and the relaunch.”
Renovation efforts also involved transforming the offices in Martyr’s Square, a large portion of which was devastated by the Beirut Port blast on Aug. 4, 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate detonated in one of the port’s warehouses.
“We worked on our offices to have an AI-powered newsroom, studios, and a news cafe,” Tueni said.
Elaborating on the news cafe, she said that it offers a platform and space for people to meet, hold conferences and talks, and maybe even organize fashion shows.
She added that Annahar is also planning to enhance its subscription model “to generate revenues on our archive — we’ve been working on documentaries, short documentaries, and content from the archives.”
Annahar’s teams are diligently working to produce “more podcasts, audios, and videos that resonate with a broader audience — talking to people from different places around the Arab world,” Tueni said.
“We’re also working to include content in foreign languages, including French and English.”
She added that “Annahar Media has a big role to play as a fact-checking hub to combat the spread of fake news,” which has been rampant in recent years.
The group is also developing a media training academy aimed at not only equipping journalism students with essential skills, but also offering courses to the wider public. These will cover topics such as public image, leadership, speaking on television, conducting interviews, and other communication skills.
On being resolute about relaunching despite the turmoil in Lebanon, Tueni highlighted Annahar’s unwavering commitment to its mission and vision “through the turbulence of war and uncertainty” since its founding in 1933 by Gebran Andraos Tueni.
She said: “Believing in Annahar, and in the mission and vision established by my grandfather and carried on by my father is incredibly important to me. Continuing this legacy is a vital endeavor.
“After 92 years of Annahar, we are embarking on a new chapter today, carrying forward the values instilled by the founder Gebran.
“Today, we’re translating this into a modern, forward-thinking approach, remaining committed to our mission of upholding the truth, delivering in-depth content, and maintaining a clear vision.”
Nayla Tueni was a member of the Lebanese parliament for a decade, from 2009 to 2018, representing the district of Achrafieh. In September 2011, she took on the role of editor-in-chief of both Annahar newspaper and its digital platform.
