“Finally” a Lebanese Cabinet

Reuters is reporting that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has announced the formation of a unity government.  Lebanon has been without a government since the June elections.  According to the Xinhua news agency, Hezbollah will hold the Agriculture Ministry and State Ministry for Administrative Reform, Michel Aoun‘s Free Patriotic Movement will retain the Telecommunications Ministry, and President Michel Sleiman will control the Defense and the Interior Ministries.

Mohamad Bazzi, at the Council on Foreign Relations, uses the cabinet building process to argue that the entire Lebanese political system is inherently unstable and that despite any power sharing compromises Lebanon must address the sectarian roots that divide the system.

The Daily Star is reporting that Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar is calling to increase government accountability through the creation of an official watchdog, or ombudsman.  The law to create an ombudsman was passed in 2005, but never implemented.  The post would serve as a mediator between the government and the public.

In other news, The Daily Star also reports that the Samir Kassir Eyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom (SKeyes), in its November bulletin, says that in spite of relative domestic calm and good working conditions for journalists following the June 2009 elections, “censorship on culture has returned to Lebanon.” The report places Lebanon 61st against developed countries in terms of press freedom, but second in the region behind Kuwait.  The report attributed Lebanon’s relatively lofty position to “the relative political calm [that] was reflected in the security situation in the country after the elections of June 2009, especially [concerning] working conditions of journalists.”