Afrasianet - "Please, shut up for a moment, I want to tell you something, the moment this situation becomes chaotic, more like animal behavior, we will leave."
This was the comment of the US envoy to Syria and Lebanon, Tom Barak, at the Baabda Palace in Beirut on Tuesday, during his press conference following his meeting with President Joseph Aoun, after the voices of some journalists overlapped while asking questions.
"If you want to know what's happening, act civilly, act kindly, act tolerantly, because that's the problem of what's happening in the region, please, do you think that's fun for us?".
Barak's comment sparked outrage among Lebanese, with many seeing it as a direct insult to Lebanese journalists as "animalistic" behaviour.
In this context, many people reacted on social media, considering Tom Barak's statement "reprehensible", and journalist Yola Yacoubian said that this "does not detract from the status of the Lebanese press, but rather reveals the extent of the collapse of the image of Western diplomacy and its deterioration in the most basic rules of respect and diplomatic communication".
She added that the press in Lebanon, despite all the difficulties, remains the pillar of freedom and the voice of the people, "while the mentality of arrogance and arrogant treatment of this country and its press is a resounding moral and diplomatic fall, before it is an abuse of the Lebanese press."
Media professionals expressed surprise at the behavior of the American envoy, asking whether an American official could address journalists in Washington in the way Tom Barrack used in Beirut.
"From the highest official Lebanese platform, High Envoy Tom Barrak stood teaching fellow journalists a lesson in "civilization and civilization, and threatened to leave if questions turned into beastly chaos," journalist Inas Karima said.
She continued, "With this superiority and colonial mentality, Barrak addressed the Lebanese press, amid official and humiliating media silence! Have you reached the point of submission to swallow your tongue in the face of the American's contempt for you and his contempt for your country? Either Barak is officially forced to apologize, or the situation remains a witness to the fall of your slogans and the exposure of humiliation and prostration."
Others wrote: "From Baabda Palace, Tom Braque insults the whole area and considers 'chaotic behavior that resembles animal behavior' to be the problem of the area, and the crowd of journalists prompted him to call us animals."
One social media post asked, "Okay, what about killing children, doctors, and paramedics? What about burning and starving women? What about the party that supports the annihilation of Gaza with money, weapons and media? What about the accomplices in crime, to which creatures do they belong?.
After the controversy, the Lebanese presidency issued a statement saying it "regrets" the remarks made from its pulpit "by one of its guests today," referring to Barak.
The Presidency stressed its "absolute respect for the dignity of the humanitarian person in general" and reiterated its "full appreciation to all journalists and media representatives accredited to it in particular, and salutes them for their efforts and hard work to perform their professional and national duty."
For its part, the Lebanese Press Editors Syndicate issued a statement describing Barrack's treatment of Lebanese journalists as "the least that can be said to be out of the principles of decency and diplomacy, and even more regrettable that it was issued by the envoy of a great country who plays a diplomatic role as is well known."
The syndicate was surprised that "Mr. Tom Braque takes the initiative to describe the behavior of the men and women of the media in the presidential palace as animalistic", stressing that the matter is "completely unacceptable, and very condemnable".
It said that it addresses its statement to Barak in particular, "and to the officials of American diplomacy in general, in which it calls for the correction of what he has done by issuing a public statement of apology from the media body."