A group calling itself ‘Raise Your Voice’ hacked on Tuesday around 15 Lebanese government websites to ask for an improvement in living standards, the day the parliament launches a three-day session to assess the cabinet’s performance, Naharnet Website reported.

“We are RYV, short for Raise Your Voice, and we are simply a group of people who could not bear sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon,” the group said.

It vowed to continue hacking the sites until the Lebanese people earn the rights they are asking for and until living standards are improved.

“We will not stop until this government's self-made problems are solved, like the power shortage, water shortage, rise in gas prices and rise in food product prices,” the group added.

“We are RYV, expect us to break the silence, whether in the streets or on the Internet,” it said, stressing that “silence is a crime.”

Among the sites that were hacked are the National News Agency, the Presidency and the Energy, Water, Justice and Foreign Ministries.

The hacking comes as the opposition is gearing up to grill the government for what it calls a bad performance and procrastination in the implementation of major decisions.

The activists posted a caricature on the home page of the websites depicting a skinny man, representing the people, feeding a fat man described as the government.

Only the Energy and Water Ministry websites had messages written on them that “Electricity is Cut” and “Water is Cut.”
The group clearly stated it is not responsible for MTV website attack.

Another media-related site that was targeted was the local MTV station.

“They called me early this morning and informed me of the hacking,” Ghayas Yazbek, the head of the news department at MTV, told The Daily Star.

He confirmed that Raise Your Voice was behind the virtual attack, where as the RYV clearly stated it is not responsible for MTV website attack.

MTV was up and running at around 1 p.m.