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From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

When Syria withdrew its last soldier from Lebanon this past April after nearly three decades of occupation,

outsiders could be forgiven for thinking that Lebanon was on the brink of a new era of democratic rule.

But this week we were reminded that transitions often come at a cost.

On Monday, the editor and publisher of the prominent newspaper, Anachar, was killed when a car bomb blew his SUV off a cliff in a Beirut suburb.

Jebron Twainey's assassination was the latest in a string of recent attacks on journalists in Lebanon.

In fact, Twainey had just returned from a few months in Paris, a trip prompted by death threats.

Suspicion fell immediately on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, currently in the crosshairs of a UN probe,

into another assassination, that of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafi Hariri. Like Hariri,

Twaini had been one of Assad's most outspoken critics. Joining me now from Beirut is Michael Young,

opinion editor for the Lebanon Daily Star. Michael, welcome back to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Tell me first, please, about Jabran Twaini and his family.

Well, I mean, the Twainey family is a prominent newspaper family in Beirut, a Greek Orthodox

...