“An-Nahar in the vortex again”“The statement read that…the reason behind the cancellation [of the conference] was “the international financial crisis that has also affected the private sector in Lebanon…[ellipses as published] in addition to increasing talk about a war in the region and the repetitive Israeli threats of a war against Lebanon.” An-Nahar’s Assistant General Director, Nayla Tueini, announced that she was sorry for this decision and that she knows that “this has embarrassed the international union.”
"The union earlier mentioned that the conference’s cost is over 1,600,000 Euros and that the “registration fees were not able to cover this.” The organizers of the event said they felt sorry about what happened, especially as the conference was supposed to be held in an Arab country for the first time. The conference was delayed until t October 6, and will be held in the German city of Hamburg.
“This brought the issue of the financial crisis suffered by the seventy-year old newspaper, back to the forefront. The last public display of this was the dismissal of more than fifty employees at the end of last September. Back then, An-Nahar’s Editor in Chief, Ghassan Hajjar, announced that the institution’s administration had called on the Booz Allen Hamilton financial investments’ company to observe the newspaper’s production. The American company concluded that the solution to An-Nahar’s crisis was to “decrease the number of staff working there from 300 to 220.” (refer to Al-Akhbar’s issue of 28/09/2009.)
“However, it seems the decision to fire employees has not saved the institution from the crisis. Indeed, employees’ paychecks were late last month, in the light of news about familial disputes that went beyond the newspaper. The dispute between Nayla Tueini and her relatives in the newspaper has reached a pinnacle, namely with her father’s uncle Sami Tueini, the Financial and Administrative Director, and his son Naji. A source close to An-Nahar says that the newspaper’s security men have prevented his car from accessing the newspaper’s [building] in Down Town Beirut and informed him that there was an administrative decision in this regard..." - Al-Akhbar Lebanon, Lebanon
