"I rose with my health." A relative success in a time of downfall.

The journalist Zaven Keomjian presented the second episode of the show "Lebanon Townhall" the day before yesterday on several Lebanese TV screens as part of the "Debate" series. The show is based on a media confrontation or direct dialogue between a group of young people and politicians or officials on a specific issue raised in each episode.

"#IroseWithMyHealth" was the title of the episode in which the youth discussed with health sector officials three main topics divided as follows: "The Wrong Health Policy," which addresses corruption in hospitals and healthcare policies; "The Morning Pill Before Breakfast," which addresses the medicine crisis, hospital monopolies, and the right to access medications; and "The Intensive Care Unit," which is dedicated to suggestions and solutions presented by the youth to address issues in the health sector.

From the beginning of the episode, it was easy to notice Keomjian's ability to manage the dialogue away from exhibitionism, noise, and shouting, which most talk shows fall into, including those that have recently introduced the idea of debate in their episodes. After the outbreak of the October 17 uprising, the idea of training a number of civil society organizations in collaboration with media outlets and journalists to revive the idea of television debate in talk shows became active.

The first time Lebanon witnessed what was known as the media debate was in 1974, between the pro-government and opposition factions in Lebanese politics. This was the first time this type of dialogue (opposition vs. pro-government) was adopted, and it was described as a "historic debate" managed by the journalist Adel Malik. Sheikh Bahij Taqieddine represented the pro-government side (he was the Minister of Interior in President Rashid Karami's government at the time), while the opposition was represented by the leader of the National Bloc, Brigadier General Raymond Edde.

Returning to "#IroseWithMyHealth," Keomjian’s success was reflected in maintaining the "tone" or sobriety of the episode, both in form and content. At the beginning of each segment, a report with numbers and facts related to the issue was presented, something we often lack in most talk shows that jump into presenting their files, even when they use numbers for political purposes depending on the station's policy and the host's political direction. The political officials did not offer anything new in their answers, as usual. Their answers confirmed the facts raised by the youth regarding corruption in healthcare policies, the lack of a proper health plan, and the resulting brain drain of doctors and nurses, medicine monopolies, etc. The officials aligned in their responses, confirming the corruption and failure in the health sector and the successive governments' plans to the point that viewers might forget that these individuals belong to parties that have been part of the government since 1992, and that they are part of this system, whether through the Ministry of Health or parliamentary committees. As always, to justify failure, the political factor comes into play, a favorite topic for politicians on talk shows, where they excel in digressing and sometimes straying from the episode's title, as was almost the case with the former Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifa. However, Zaven’s professional and accurate intervention was commendable, reminding the guest to stick to the episode's title.

In turn, MP Assem Araji contradicted himself by admitting that the health sector was affected by sectarianism and political patronage, but quickly refusing to acknowledge the failure of officials and even calling, albeit reluctantly, for not generalizing the responsibility for this situation. Regardless of whether Araji is convinced of what he says to justify the failure of health policies over the years or to absolve political entities close to him for their involvement in the medicine cartel and the failure of health policies, Keomjian succeeded once again in maintaining his journalistic professionalism by not falling into what many journalists in Lebanon often do, which is becoming a party in the dialogue by determining and judging who is guilty and who is not within the political class based on their personal convictions. Keomjian avoided this media pitfall, offering a general description of the guest’s remarks about mistakes, saying: "There are mistakes, but there are no wrongdoers, just as there is corruption in Lebanon but no corrupters."

“Where is the accountability?” This is the question Zaven Keomjian poses to former MP Ismail Skaria, who discussed the dominance of political corruption and the consumer-based commercial system in the medical sector in his response to the youth’s questions during the debate. Ironically, Khalifa intervened to respond to Skaria, who talked about laws that had been dropped in successive parliamentary sessions. Perhaps Khalifa considered himself involved in his colleague's remarks and tried to showcase his achievements in the Ministry of Health, only for Keomjian to steer the discussion back on track, despite some noise created by the political accusations exchanged between the guests and the justifications that dominated the responses throughout the episode.

As for the youth, they were selected, according to Keomjian, to participate in the debate after receiving training from the "Debate" initiative. Initially, the youth avoided making direct political accusations during the episode by not using terms like "you" or "the political class." However, this professionalism in managing the episode and in the content of the youth's questions and interventions slightly faltered in the final segment when one of the youth directly criticized the Free Patriotic Movement by using the term "heirs of power" and criticized the famous phrase "they didn’t let us." While Keomjian was able to keep the officials' responses on track and focused on the goal of the episode, he did not intervene to prevent this slip into a specific political direction.

Despite the correctness of the issues raised by the youth, the emotional tone and rhetorical style dominated their interventions, which weakened the core purpose of the show that should have been accountability and discussion.

"Debate" is not the first initiative to train youth on debate and democracy, and it remains unclear what the primary goal is behind the spread of this healthy phenomenon, whether it is purely professional and free from political agendas or not. 

The youth proposed suggestions and solutions to address the issues in Lebanon's health sector, such as unifying drug lists, establishing a drug office to combat cartels, decentralizing healthcare in Lebanon, and other issues. Do the officials who participated in the episode and encouraged the youth have the courage to present and follow through with these proposals within their parties?

"Debate" defines itself as "a non-profit organization founded in 2012." According to the organization’s website, registered in Washington, D.C., and in Tunis, "the initiative aims to establish an independent and inclusive platform for discussion and debate in the Arab region, empowering individuals in the Arab world to voice their opinions and to create a public space characterized by development and tolerance toward differing viewpoints." According to the National News Agency, several Lebanese TV stations are founding members of this initiative, which is "new and committed to the principles of journalism in the service of the public interest." These stations include: "Lebanese Television," "Al-Jadeed TV," "OTV," "NBAN," "Radio Voice of Lebanon," and "Voice of the People."