TV coverage of sexual abuse by members of the clergy in Lebanon : case study : Hki Jeless on LBCI, 1544 on MTV, Li Nnasher on Al Jadeed-2014-2015

Abstract

With the increase of sexual abuse acts by members of clergy and the rise of the number of victims who suffered from the consequences of such crimes in the world generally and in Lebanon specifically, it became essential to study how these crimes were covered by TV shows. For that reason, there was a need to highlight how TV channels were covering this issue through analyzing how it was presented by the top three TV shows in Lebanon; "Lil Nnasher" on Al Jadeed channel, "Hki Jeless" on LBCI channel and "1544" on MTV Lebanon channel. Through content analysis, TV coverage of sexual abuse by members of the religious clergy was examined by watching, describing and analyzing the three TV shows aired on Lebanese local channels. The investigation results of the four cases "Father Antoun Farah", "Sheikh", "George Kiwan" and "Tarek Mallah" covered by TV shows were hidden. This shows that media institutions were not covering this issue in a serious and analytical way, and that the clergy who took responsibility for investigating these crimes initialized their own reputation over the well-being of the victims. Therefore, this thesis aims to shed the light on how TV shows were covering sexual abuse by members of the clergy in Lebanon and to highlight the severe results not taken into consideration neither by media nor by other clergy. The result of my thesis showed that the TV coverage of sexual abuse is limited at best.