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Activists had campaigned against the film
because Spielberg gave financial support to Israel during its
2006 war with Hezbollah in south Lebanon, a conflict that killed
hundreds of Lebanese. Lebanon still regards Israel as an enemy
state.
"I see no obstacle preventing the film from being shown because
it has nothing to do with Lebanon or the conflict with the
Israeli enemy," Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk told Reuters.
George Hanna, head of the publications department in the
ministry's General Security branch, said the film oversight
committee could recommend films be banned if they constitute
positive propaganda for Israel among other reasons.
"The Post" dramatizes the 1971 battle by American newspapers to
publish leaked documents, known as the Pentagon Papers,
concerning the U.S. government's role in the Vietnam War.
In 2017, Lebanon banned two films but permitted 317 commercial
and 766 festival films to screen, Hanna said.
This year, it has already banned another film, "Jungle", pulling
it from cinemas after several days of screenings. It is based on
a book by a former Israeli navy serviceman about his travels in
the Amazon rainforest.
Bassam Eid, product manager for Empire Cinemas in Lebanon and
distributor of "The Post", said social media campaigns have
started to put more pressure on Lebanon's government over films.
Last year Lebanon banned the film "Wonder Woman" over the
starring role of the Israeli actor Gal Gadot.
Lebanon is widely seen as a relative bastion of free speech in
the Middle East.
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington with additional reporting by Laila
Bassam and Dahlia Nehme; Writing by Angus McDowall; editing by
Mark Heinrich)
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