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Homeland - Lebanon seeking legal action against the show

19 Oct 2012

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Lebanon is seeking to take legal action against the award-winning American television series Homeland for its portrayal of Beirut as a city riven with terrorists.

In the eagerly awaited second episode of the second season of the CIA thriller, shown on Channel 4, millions of viewers tuned in to watch as the protagonists hunted terrorists through the narrow, dirty and dangerous streets of "Beirut".

But Fady Abboud, Lebanon's minister of tourism, who has spent a small fortune trying to revive the country's reputation as the Paris of the Middle East, expressed outrage at the "serious misrepresentation" of the city.
"We are following the case legally. I raised this at the cabinet meeting and the president asked the minister for justice and the minister of communications to see what can be done," said Mr Abboud.

"I am calling on all young Lebanese adults to do what they need to do; to write blogs, to call the BBC and CNN to try to raise awareness that Beirut is not a city of Kalashnikov and war."

The Homeland episode's title, Beirut is back, appropriates a phrase that has often been used in newspapers in recent years to describe the city's resurgence as a vibrant capital. The New York Times ranks Beirut as a must-see destination and Lonely Planet lists it as one of the 10 greatest comeback cities in the world.

Source: Full Artile @ The Telegraph
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20 comments:

  1. Brandon Rowe19 October 2012 at 16:05

    Just after I read this, I see that a bomb killed 8+ people in Beirut. How awful....

    ReplyDelete
  2. mattneil819 October 2012 at 16:14

    In other news.... http://news.yahoo.com/explosion-rocks-central-beirut-witnesses-120610495.html

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  3. Aydrian19 October 2012 at 16:18

    Absolutely idiotic. I never watch some foreign land on a fictional TV show and think it's an accurate representation of what that land is like. Don't want people to see the dust and grime? Clean up the dust and grime! Wanting them to only show what you consider the better parts of Beirut is incredibly pathetic.

    Start working on those places that you feel misrepresent your land or stop whining about it. Just about every country does this and it annoys the hell out of me.

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  4. tom_scavo19 October 2012 at 16:21

    Really awful indeed. But I don't think you can blame the whole city... I actually believe that this could hurt the image of Beirut. You can't blame a whole city for a fraction of its population. I mean nobody blamed the city of Denver, Colorado for one horrible act...

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  5. tom_scavo19 October 2012 at 16:27

    I don't think they want the U.S. to show only the 'better' part of Beirut. They just want them to show a more accurate, versatile picture of the city. Just because the U.S. only makes public negative press about the Middle East to its people doesn't mean there are no beautiful and positive parts of Beirut. Maybe not you, but I'm sure there are people who'll judge Beirut as a 'negative' city after watching that particular episode of 'Homeland'...

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  6. Hilla Osovsky19 October 2012 at 16:37

    They are pissed that the episode was shot at the old part of Tel Aviv in Israel, and not in Beirut..

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  7. the dane19 October 2012 at 18:02

    I often wondered how the got away with portraying muslim countries as a place full of terrorism. It´s not the first show to do it. Hmmmm.....

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  8. Steff35719 October 2012 at 18:42

    Aydrian your explanation is totally wrong, the problem is that these images that you see in movies and tv shows are not true. Beirut does not even look like that, the way Hollywood portrays the cities of arabic countries is wrong and makes you think camels and donkeys wander the streets and that the people look like/ are dressed like the middle ages... It's frustrating and completely ignorant. I see people here commenting yeah there are positive and negative places there... No!! There aren't and that's the problem, they make people think that..
    Btw I'm not from Lebanon or anything like that, just want people to understand that US movies/shows never portray arabic countries accurately.

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  9. Sandi19 October 2012 at 21:58

    Why is he asking people to write to the BBC about this issue??

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  10. tom_scavo19 October 2012 at 22:46

    So you think every place is just the same over there and the crime rates are the same in every part of the city? Don't get me wrong, I mostly agree with your statement, I just don't get the one where you say that they wanna make people think that there are positive and negative places. Why is that wrong in your opinion?

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  11. lsbloom19 October 2012 at 23:11

    I think just cause it's a major news agency?

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  12. Steff35719 October 2012 at 23:14

    I may have been unclear, what I meant was that they make you think that there are places that look like that over there and that is what is not true, we live in 2012 not 1812... Areas with higher crime rates exist all over the world, it doesn't mean that the actual area have to look a certain way. The fact remains that the scenes in Homeland were not shot in the actual city of Beirut so in what way are they showing good and bad places? My argument is not about if they show good and bad places, but rather why they would even show locations that are not actually there?

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  13. tom_scavo19 October 2012 at 23:20

    Now I get it... and totally agree!

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  14. lsbloom20 October 2012 at 00:45

    Well, unfortunately, there are terrorists in Beirut, as the tragic bombing shows, and most news that hits at an international level is bad news because "hey we're rebuilding" isn't newsworthy, so we remember the bombings and decades of civil war and unrest, and Beirut is a plausible location for a fictional story. On a side note, Homeland is based off of an Israeli program, so that part of the story could have been part of it as well.


    I like it when programs shoot on location because I like to see what things really look like in places that I might not ever get to go (I also love House Hunters International, just to see in those great Paris apartments). But they filmed this in Tel Aviv not Beirut.

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  15. Lisneyde Abreu20 October 2012 at 00:46

    My 2 cents:
    Yeah Lebanon, that may be an unfair portrait of your city, because it basically goes against your territorial marketing agenda. I, however, truly think that this portrait is just a representation meant to serve a purpose - a plot purpose and I don't actually think they're interested in whatever image you want to create for your city. They probably don't even care about what is Lebanon, the territory! There has to be a higher meaning for this - it's geopolitical, way more than just a cultural or spatial thing.

    And by the way, does your action mean that, for instance, latino community should take legal action against movie industry because they're always portrayed in the same way? And what about the way that industry represents Africa? Should we take a legal action against anyone that represents us, or our territory, differently than how we feel we are, look or behave, because that representation is not fair, regardless of its purpose? Is it just a matter of fairness?

    I'd recommend Lebanon's Tourism Minister to read Edward Said's Orientalism.

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  16. Narnia20 October 2012 at 02:45

    Complete SHIT, it's a TV show you know. Also Beirut was hit by a car bomb Safe? Not really anymore.

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  17. lsbloom20 October 2012 at 02:52

    I'm guessing they shot in Tel Aviv for either safety or financial reasons.

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  18. Cathy20 October 2012 at 10:40

    This is just stupid. Based on that, basically any country in the world would start suing US-american television and films because of the negative, stereotypical portrait of their nation.

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  19. Steff35720 October 2012 at 12:12

    Yeah because the Israelis are always happy to lend out a hand when it comes to portraying an accurate picture of arab countries right? ;)

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  20. Steff35720 October 2012 at 12:16

    Great! :)

    ReplyDelete

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