Young people in Lebanon seldom have a say when it comes to politics. It seems almost an unwritten rule that they should be steered away from the political stage and unengaged in general public opinion. All this however, is about to change thanks to YouthVoice. If you haven’t heard yet, YouthVoice is a project launched by RootSpace in which a news supplement will be written and produced entirely by the Lebanese youth and will be released one week before the elections. The project will also include a website (http://www.sawtashabab.org) on which content will be published starting this week and until Election night.
Students from all different universities in Lebanon have been encouraged to submit material regarding the elections taking place on the 7th of June. Under that one subject, they may explore, comment, investigate and reflect on any aspect they want. Within the boundaries of the law of publication in Lebanon, young people are free to say what they want without their voices being muffled. They will be able to exercise that which Lebanon is famous for among the rest of the Arabic countries: freedom of speech.
To launch the project, an editorial board of twelve members (all under the age of 25) was selected by YouthVoice. The first editorial meeting was held in RootSpace’s offices in Saifi on Saturday May 16, 2009 and focused on concluding the format of the paper and subheadings in which all content will be divided. The paper will be 8 pages long and will be published along with the two leading news papers in the country, An-Nahar and Al-Akhbar, on the 27th of May. On top of that, 5,000 copies will be distributed among various universities and an online website will be available to target a much larger audience.
The Board divided the paper into six sections with intermixed Arabic and English content. Among the sections: News, which will include all investigations about voting minorities, women’s involvement in elections, reflections of the common people in the streets and any controversial issue that needs looking into as well as coverage of what’s going on. The second section is the youth section and will be the largest as it will include all opinion pieces and editorials as well as a “did you know” section and youth quotes; basically anything young people want to say about the elections. Another section will be the media/arts/fashion which will explore the biases of media in covering the elections and take a deeper look at how traditional (newspapers, radio, TV) and Web 2.0 media (websites of candidates, blogs, facebook, youtube) are covering the elections. It will also include a subsection on Lebanese artists’ involvement in the elections. A section on foreign reactions to the election will be dubbed Lebanese elections and the world. This section will look into foreign involvement in the elections and what foreign students in Lebanon make of it. A section on corruption and economy will explore election costs, campaign funds, bribing voters and environmental issues. Finally the entertainment section will feature a health section, funny horoscopes that target politicians, crossword puzzles, political jokes and more.
Young people can contribute to any of these subheadings in Arabic and English or come up with others on their own as long as the topic is relevant. Content submitted before May 22 will be reviewed by the board and selected for the print edition and the home page of the website. However, we will be expecting submissions until Election night, and hopefully beyond. This is a stepping stone for young journalists and citizens everywhere in Lebanon. We aspire for it to grow.
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