In 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked out of Athens by Islamic gunmen, and forced to land in Beirut. To ease the boredom of their American captives, the hijackers ordered 40 copies each day of The Daily Star, Lebanon’s only English-language daily.

The Star continues to enjoy a prominent position in journalism in Lebanon, where a bomb killed the leading opponent of the government, and former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, along with nine others, yesterday. The paper recently announced plans to open regional offices, with a 30-member editorial and administrative staff, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. If all goes according to plan, the Star will soon be printed in Beirut, Cairo, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, and Manama, Bahrain, and distributed in up to 14 countries across the region.

But one aspect of the Star’s rise to prominence in the world of Middle East journalism has brought the paper into conflict with the Lebanese government – a conflict that, along with Monday’s bombing, complicates the prevailing picture of Lebanon as one of the Arab world’s more open and progressive societies.

Same-day copies of the International Herald Tribune are distributed daily along with the Star across Lebanon and several other countries in the region, under an agreement between the two papers. In April 2002, the Star distributed an issue of the Tribune that included an ad placed by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, under the headline, “Israel we are with you. Now more than ever.” The text read: “We are deeply saddened and pained by the tragic loss of life as a result of the vicious campaign of Palestinian terrorism.”

As a result, the Star’s owner, Jamil Mroue – whose father Kemal founded the paper in 1952 – found himself indicted under Lebanon’s Publication Law, for running a “notice which supports Israel in its war against the Palestinians, weakens national sentiment and raises dissension of a racist nature.” Mr. Mroue faced a possible sentence of three to 15 years in jail.

The case was eventually dismissed, but Mr. Mroue and the Star got the message. Since then, on days when pro-Jewish ads are included in the Tribune, the Star simply doesn’t distribute the Tribune, placing a notice in the Star explaining why.

“This country technically is still at war with Israel,” explained Hanna Anbar, associate publisher of the Star. “Any ad that is promoting the Israeli government or the Zionists is taboo.”

Tribune management, Mr. Anbar, a Palestinian, said, would prefer that the Star not distribute the paper at all rather than black out or replace the offending ads. “These are the instructions of the IHT…” he said, referring to the Tribune. “…I can understand their point of view. They don’t want anybody to play with their ads.”

Notwithstanding Mr. Anbar’s assertion, there reportedly have been occasions when the Star did indeed distribute the IHT with ads blacked out or replaced with house ads.

The International Herald Tribune did not respond to a request for comment.