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BEIRUT: Censorship has no place in the Lebanese cultural milieu, Culture Minister Raymond Areiji told The Daily Star Monday. I am against any censorship on cultural events, and I mean movies, songs or anything else. In a country where politicians can say everything they want, insulting each other and harming national unity, it is not logical or healthy to have censorship on cultural products.

Controversial scenes in Western movies should no longer be edited out for Lebanese audiences, he added. Its been done for 30 years. But today when you cut a scene, you can find it immediately on YouTube. And when you cut a scene, you make people want to watch it even more. You emphasize it in a way the director didnt intend.

Reassessing censorship in the cultural sphere is just one of many projects Areiji hopes to tackle before a new president is elected and his mandate expires.

The Zghorta native revealed that his ministry was working on an ambitious new website that would feature more than 1,000 works by Lebanese grand masters.

These works are all held in the three official palaces to which the public have little access, he said. In collaboration with ALBA [Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts] were creating a virtual museum where we can expose our collection.

Areiji is applying his 25-year career in law to his new post as minister. The cultural arena lacks a clear and modern legal framework, he said.

Im working on a new law for the protection of archaeological sites, he explained, and many other regulations that are lacking in this ministry.

As Lebanon has no dedicated Antiquities Ministry, questions of archaeology and preservation fall under Areijis mandate. Arbitrating between developers seeking to build glossy high-rises and conservationists hoping to protect ancient ruins has been one of the main issues his ministry faces, he said.

His predecessor, Gaby Layoun, sided with construction companies in a series of hotly disputed cases and drew particularly sharp criticism when he permitted the destruction of a Roman Hippodrome to make way for an exclusive new development.

We must find a balance between protecting our heritage and progress in the economy and real estate sectors, Areiji said.

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Culture minister tackles censorship, smuggling