Three teams of terrorists organized attacks at six separate locations within the city of Paris late on Friday claiming the lives of 129 people. Just 24 hours before in Beirut, Lebanon, two suicide bombers were credited with the death of 43 in addition to over 239 wounded.
Only one of these events, however, received comprehensive news coverage from the Western part of the world. Paris received an outpouring of recognition while Beirut was quickly forgotten in the wake of the “greater” tragedy.
According to an article on Time.com, in the 24 hours following the terrorist attacks in Paris, more than 70 million people shared prayers and support via Instagram. Buildings and monuments around the world were lit up displaying the colors of the French flag. This expression of support for Paris is similar to that which the United States received in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
A Lebanese doctor, Elie Fares wrote on his blog: "When my people died, they did not send the world into mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world."
In one city, the attack was the worst chaos the area had seen in decades. In the other city it was just another realization that the threat of violence is always present. But is one act of terrorism more worthy of news? Is one act of terrorism more important than another?
In both cities people were tragically killed at random. Both cities were left devastated.
As an Editorial Board we believe that these two events deserve equal coverage among Western news outlets. The people in both cities deserve their losses to be recognized in the eyes of the world. The support shown for Paris has been immense, now it is time to provide equal support for Beirut.
Both terrorist attacks are important.