CAIRO: Samer Mohdad, founder of Menassat, a Beirut-based regional news website that was shut down, accused its funders of spending its money on hiring Dutch consultants and lawyers rather than on the site. Menassat was shut down last week due to a lack of finances to continue funding the project, its funder, Free Voice, a Dutch media freedom advocacy group, said in a press release. In a press statement, Free Voice had indicated that it has provided additional funds from its own means several times "under the agreement that additional funds would be actively sought for from Beirut . Sadly, Free Voice has to acknowledge that these have not been secured and Free Voice is now forced to terminate its support, in line with these agreements. "Free Voice will continue to monitor the possibilities of a second life for this initiative and will support this if possible, the statement added. However, Mohdad strongly disagrees with Free Voice's explanation. He said he signed an agreement with Free Voice last May against his will, agreeing to "make Menassat a Dutch foundation defending freedom of expression in the Arab World, founded in the Netherlands and actively based in Beirut, he said in a statement to Daily News Egypt. However, according to Mohdad, "Free Voice's director preferred to spend more than what is needed to finance Menassat for one year by hiring Dutch consultants and lawyers, he said in the statement. Mohdad also claimed that the editorial team helped Free Voice bring down Menassat. He said that expressing the team's frustration with the closure in the online statement "shows the professional level of the former editorial team. Menassat, which means platforms in Arabic, was intended "to be a platform where Arab media professionals can offer and exchange views and information free of censorship and political or sectarian agendas [and their] philosophy is the promotion of freedom of expression, as stated on their website. Free Voice had been solely funding Menassat since August 2008. It was initially funded by the Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Free Voice, through its program Investing in the Future, when it was founded in 2007. In a statement posted on the website on Tuesday Sept. 1 and removed on Thursday Sept. 3, Menassat's editorial team announced that they are no longer responsible for what s being posted on the site. Mohdad will now be managing the content, according to the statement. "It must be clear that as of January of 2009, the editorial team of Menassat has disassociated itself from Mr Mohdad, and indeed all of the content produced since December 2008 has had nothing to do with Mr Mohdad. This takeover is happening without the consent of the Menassat team, the statement continued. Mohdad confirmed that Menassat will continue operating and will be financed by Arab Images Foundation in the meantime, "[until] we find a new financial partner or donor [who will take] this idea where it should be, he said. The editorial team has also announced in their statement that they will be re-launching somewhere else under a different name soon
