The closure -- which came as Shiite fighters routed Sunni loyalists of the Western-backed government -- concerned one satellite news channel, two regular television stations, a newspaper and a radio station.

The media empire was launched by Hariri's father, Rafik Hariri, the billionaire former prime minister who was assassinated in February 2005 in a massive Beirut seafront car bombing.

The slain ex-premier rose from humble beginnings to command an empire that included flagship construction company Saudi-Oger, real estate developer Solidere, banks and other companies -- turning everything he touched into gold.

His business activities and his rise as an influential Middle East political leader often won the elder Hariri comparisons with Italy's billionaire politician Silvio Berlusconi who also sits atop a huge business and media empire.

Future Television was launched in February 1993 at the height of Lebanon's post-war reconstruction frenzy, when Hariri was also busy in multi-billion-dollar ventures to rebuild Beirut's war-devastated city center.

The guns of the 1975-1990 civil war had gone silent only three years earlier and the new high-tech television offered a wide scope of family programs, variety shows as well as news.

In 1994 Future Television launched a trial satellite broadcasting -- Future International -- that also proved very popular with Arab audiences.

In less than a year, Future International grew to become one of the leading Arab satellite stations gathering the highest audience ratings in the Gulf, Egypt and the Levant," according to Future Television website.

"Like Future Television, Future International is a family TV that promotes Lebanon as a place for reconstruction, civilization, prosperity, coexistence, fun and good times."

Future Television restructured its ownership in 1996 and "now has around 90 new shareholders, all from the Lebanese business, social and media elite."

That same year it set up a website on the Internet, the first by a Lebanese television.

The television expanded yet again in December 2007 when it launched Future News, a 24/hour, which broadcasts news in Turkish and Armenian as well as Arabic, English and French.

The Hariri family also moved into radio in February 1995, setting up Radio Orient which began broadcasting from Beirut before moving onto a new base in Paris.

Like the television, Radio Orient focuses on news from and about the Arab world, and Lebanon in particular, broadcasting in English and French as well as Arabic.

Al-Mustaqbal newspaper was also founded in 1995 and serves as the mouthpiece of Hariri's Future movement.(AFP)