The Samir Kassir Foundation is a Lebanese non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded on 1 February 2006. It is named after Samir Kassir, a Lebanese journalist assassinated in Beirut on 2 June 2005. It aims to spread democratic culture in Lebanon and the Arab world, encourage new talents in journalism, and build the movement for a cultural, democratic, and secular renewal. The Foundation strives to defend freedom of media and culture through the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom that it hosts since 2008, which has become the largest center to monitor violations against journalists and artists in the Arab Levant as well as a reference for research on journalism and for training media professionals and enhancing their skills.