Lebanese President-elect will clamp down on press

Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel has threatened to tighten controls on the press and close down Lebanese publications financed from abroad.

Mr. Gemayel told the staff of state-run television that press laws, largely ignored since the outbreak of civil war in 1975, would be strictly applied when he takes office Sept. 23. The change could spell decline for the country's flourishing press. Lebanon has over 20 daily newspapers, many of then supported by foreign Arab money.