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AFP
Beirut
Lebanese authorities have banned Steven Spielberg's latest film, political thriller"The Post", and Australian drama"Jungle"to comply with a boycott of Israel, said.
"Screening of the film 'The Post'has been banned,"said the official from Lebanon's General Security authority, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Spielberg"is blacklisted by the Arab League's boycott office, which Lebanon complies with", the official explained.
The pan-Arab body maintains a regional boycott of Israel, and blacklisted Spielberg after he donated $1 million to Israel during its 2006 war with Lebanon. The two countries are still technically in a state of war.
While Lebanon is generally considered the most liberal of Arab countries, it occasionally bans content considered immoral, inciteful, or supportive of Israel.
General Security -- in addition to controlling Lebanon's borders -- is responsible for censoring films, plays, and books."The Post"was slated for a January 18 release date in Lebanese theatres. The acclaimed production tells the behind-the-scenes story of the 1971 publication by The Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies behind US involvement in the Vietnam War.
The censorship axe also hit"Jungle", a survival drama about Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg, who got lost in an uncharted part of the Bolivian Amazon in 1981. The production, starring Daniel Radcliffe, had been screening for two weeks in Lebanon but is now being pulled, the same official said.
"It received an authorisation to be screened, and it was indeed screening, but several registered complaints prompted us to pull it from theatres to avoid any problems,"the official said, without specifying the nature of the protests.
Several days ago, the Lebanese branch of the Campaign to Boycott the Supporters of Israel (CBSI) called for a boycott of"Jungle,"citing ties to Israel.
