Rafik Hariri is no longer prime minister of Lebanon, but his news are covered by the media as if he is still one! For example, An-Nahar's issue of Monday, January 4, 1999, had a single story on its front page under the heading: Hariri Meets Chirak. As a former prime minister, Hariri's social visit to the French president carries no political significance and is not news worthy, had it not been for the gentleman's financial power over some Lebanese media.
Aside from his own fully owned television station, Future TV, Hariri has a certain following of his appointees at the official Tele Liban television station.
His influence with the press extends from An-Nahar to As-Safir and Al-Diyar, all three leading Beirut dailies.
A search of the Beirut register of commerce revealed that a big chunk of An-Nahar Company, nearly 37%, is owned by Wife Holding SAL. In its turn, Wife is owned 99.9% by Hariri's sister, Bahia who is a Member of Parliament from Sidon, Hariri's hometown. The Tueni family and relatives hold a little over 52% of the shares, and the identity of the remaining shareholders is not known.
An unknown number of the Tueni family shares is deposited with one of Hariri's banks, Banque Mediterrane, as collateral for borrowings.
Due to the heavy publishing losses of the daily newspapers in Lebanon, many publications depend on huge undisclosed subsidies from anonymous sources to balance their cash flow. It is widely believed that Mr. Hariri has been heavily subsidizing all three dailies, including An-Nahar, in addition to his Wife's stake in the latter.
On November 30, 1998, An-Nahar received a cash injection of two million US dollars from Hariri to fund a capital increase in the same amount. An-Nahar's current board of directors includes Wife and three other Hariri appointed directors, namely: Basil Yarid, Daoud Sayigh and Nuhad Mashnouk, who all work for Hariri full time. The board of Wife Holding consists of the following:
Bahia Hariri
Ass'ad Mukaddam
Mustafa Razian
Abdul Latif Al Shamma Mohamad Sammak
Arif Mounaeimneh
Houda Kiriakos

Mukaddam, Razian, Shamma, Sammak and Fawaz are all full time employees of Mr. Hariri. Ms. Kiriakos is the wife of Mr. Bahij Tabbara, Hariri's counsel whom he had appointed as minister of justice. Arif Mouneimneh is a lawyer associated with Mr. Tabbara's office.
All the above are also shareholders. Ms. Hariri holds 9965 out of 10,000 shares. Of the balance five shares are held by each of the above mentioned directors. The registered and paid up capital of Wife is $ 1 million.