AnNahar was established in 1933 by the Tueni family and characterized by a liberal orientation, which, without denying its Arab roots, looks to Europe and the West as a political and cultural reference point. It has a long history of standing with the Lebanese people in the face of adversity and for being outspoken against injustice. In fact, the newspaper’s history is riddling with retaliations, culminating in the assassination of its editor-in-chief in 2005.

Once the number one newspaper across the country, its circulation has been steadily declining since the beginning of the 2000s at a rate that has even outpaced the total decline of the publishing industry; placing AnNahar in second place after As-Safir.

As Lebanon found itself going through a political and economic crisis, with necessities getting scarcer every day, the government menaced to cancel a decisive parliamentary election due to an absurd reason; a shortage of paper and ink necessary to print election ballots.Thus, in an intentional strategic approach to the challenge, An-Nahar, Lebanon’s leading newspaper, decided not to print its February 2nd edition and instead send the unused paper and ink for the printing of ballots.

As a result, that morning people walked to empty newsstands were they only found a QR code that directed them to the online version of the newspaper explaining the cause behind the issue. An-Nahar’s creative take on the problem would generate the country’s new symbol of democracy: empty newsstands that speak louder than words. It didn’t cost a thing to save democracy, our paper and ink were enough to give people hope. A hope of living in a country that protects their freedom of speech and political rights.