Middle East & North Africa

Libya

{This graph represents scores that have been modified by CIMA so that higher scores indicate a better media situation. It is intended to show trends over time; each index measures significantly different factors of press freedom. To see an explanation for how this graph was created, click here.}
 

IREX Description:

After two years of cautious optimism, this year saw marked decline in conditions for independent media in Libya, the MSI panelists reported. The country's brief experiment with private media came to an abrupt end in 2009, with the nationalization of the satellite television channel and newspapers owned by Al Ghad Media Corporation, a company that Saif al Islam al Qadhafi (Muammar Qadhafi's son) supports. While they existed, the private newspaper Oea in Tripoli, Quryna newspaper in Benghazi, and satellite television channel Al Libeyya challenged the government's longstanding monopoly on media. Unlike their state-run peers, these outlets addressed corruption and under-performing government officials and institutions—although certain issues, including the Qadhafi regime itself, remained sacrosanct.

In June 2009, it became clear that the government was no longer interested in tolerating even mild criticism. Authorities announced that private outlets would continue to operate but the National Center for Media Services would control them. In January 2010, after the panelists submitted their scores, the General Press Authority banned Oea and Quryna from publishing, on the grounds that the newspapers had failed to pay a series of bills. The outlets continued to operate online. The Internet remains the sole venue for Libyans to express themselves openly and access impartial news and commentary. News sites and blogs run by Libyans continued to expand in number and improve in quality, in spite of the Qadhafi regime's attempts to censor content and threaten authors.

Read more on IREX’s site…

Reporters Without Borders Description:

Libya has over the past few years continued the process of its return to the international scene that began with the lifting of the embargo in 2004. The country chaired the UN Security Council in March 2009. This trend has been accompanied by a relative improvement in the area of basic freedoms, although progress remains brittle. The same goes for freedom of the press with the government making frequent gestures of openness over the past two years but pulling back from this progress lately. Moreover it still exerts tight control over the media through a repressive legislative stranglehold.

Read more on RSF’s site…

Col. Muammar Qaddafi marked in September the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power and led to the eradication of human rights and the assassination and enforced disappearance of hundreds of critics, including journalists. The government has used softer tactics of repression in recent years in keeping with its efforts to rehabilitate Qaddafi’s international image, but it has maintained a tight grip on the news media.

“They’ve realized that routinely harassing journalists … achieves the same goal without causing any public outcry,” said Omar al-Keddi, a Radio Netherlands journalist and a Libyan who was forced into exile 10 years ago. Al-Jazeera and human rights defenders cited a spate of defamation cases filed in early year by the office of the press prosecutor, an agency assigned specifically to investigate purported news media offenses. Although no journalist was in prison in late year, harassment appeared to be the government’s strategy. CPJ sources said the prosecutor’s office has made a practice of summoning journalists for questioning multiple times, often forcing them to travel many miles on short notice. In February, more than 60 academics and journalists joined in a petition denouncing the “judicial harassment,” news reports said.

Read more on CPJ’s site...

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