2005 was a sombre year for the media in Lebanon, which has long had the best record for press freedom in the Arab world, and the country's journalists paid a very heavy price for the uncertainty and lawlessness since the 14 February assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. Samir Kassir, columnist with the Arab daily An-Nahar and local correspondent for the French TV station TV5, was killed by a car-bomb on 2 June and Gebran Tueni, an MP and managing editor of the paper, was killed by another on 12 December. May Chidiac, star presenter of the TV station LBC, was also targeted for assassination by a bomb placed under the seat of her car and was seriously wounded and mutilated. Lebanese journalists remain under pressure and live in fear, some of them fleeing abroad, as they await the definitive report of the United Nations enquiry into the Hariri murder, expected in June 2006.

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