Lebanon's oldest newspaper, An-Nahar, went out to newsstands completely blank on Thursday (October 11th) to protest the country's political deadlock and economic woes, AFP reported.
Despite more than five months of wrangling, Prime Minister designate Saad al-Hariri has been unable to form a new government, putting an $11-billion aid package at risk.
An-Nahar, founded in 1933, published eight blank pages in print and linkless white boxes on its main page online, posting headlines but no news items.
"People are tired and An-Nahar is tired of writing up your pretexts and repeated empty promises," editor-in-chief Nayla al-Tueni said at a press conference in Beirut.
A new government would be able to sign off on billions of dollars in aid pledged at a conference in April, notably to help boost Lebanon's ailing infrastructure.
But political parties have been locked in dispute over the makeup of a future cabinet.
"The situation is no longer bearable," al-Tueni said, adding, however, that the newspaper was not taking sides in the ongoing wrangling.
The blank issue aimed to express "our deep moral sense of responsibility as a press institution over the disastrous state of the country", she said.
