Radio Liban
Radio Liban stands among the oldest radio broadcasters in the Arab world, tracing its roots back to the mid-20th century. While Arabic remains its principal broadcasting language, the station also airs select programs in French, English, and Armenian, reflecting Lebanon’s multicultural heritage.
Media assets
Radio: Radio Liban
State Media Matrix Typology
Ownership and governance
Radio Liban operates as a directorate under the authority of the Ministry of Information, functioning within the framework of a national media strategy formally approved by the Lebanese government. According to local media experts familiar with this strategy interviewed for this report in June 2025, the Ministry exercises direct oversight over both the station’s operations and content.
Unlike Télé-Liban, Radio Liban has not been spun off as a semi-autonomous public entity. Instead, it remains fully embedded within the state’s administrative structure, limiting its institutional independence and reinforcing its status as an instrument of official communication.
Although there have been occasional calls for broader media reform, no meaningful governance restructuring of Radio Liban has taken place in recent years.
As of early 2025, Mohamed Gharib is identified as the Director of Radio Liban, working under the oversight of the Ministry of Information.
Source of funding and budget
The station is entirely state-funded, relying on direct subsidies from the Ministry of Information. However, it has been chronically underfunded, struggling to cover even basic operational costs.
According to local journalists and former staff interviewed for this report in June 2025, the latest available budget allocation for the station—reportedly from 2023—stood at just LBP 65 million per month (around US$4,300 at prevailing exchange rates). This meager sum underscores the dire financial situation at Radio Liban, which is seen by many as symbolic of the broader institutional neglect of Lebanon’s public media sector.
No official budget reports or expenditure breakdowns have been made public, and there is no external audit mechanism in place.
Editorial independence
Radio Liban’s editorial policy is directly shaped—and effectively constrained—by the government. Its programming follows an editorial strategy crafted and approved by the Ministry of Information, which not only supervises content but also controls staffing and day-to-day operations.
As a result, the station lacks meaningful editorial independence. Analysts interviewed for this report in June 2025 describe it as serving primarily as a mouthpiece for official narratives rather than a platform for balanced public service journalism.
No domestic law enshrines the editorial autonomy of Radio Liban, and no independent oversight mechanism exists to safeguard or assess its journalistic independence. Despite Lebanon’s constitutional guarantees for press freedom, these have not translated into institutional protections for the country’s public broadcasters.
July 2025