Libya eyes independent media

2006-01-28 09:47

Tripoli - Libya said on Friday it is heading toward allowing private newspapers, radio and television news in what has been a state-controlled media environment for more than 30 years.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, who also runs the Kadhafi Goodwill Foundation, was given the green light by his father to spearhead the plan though a new company.

"The first experimental program on one of the radio stations will take place in March," said Abdel Salam al-Mushri, an official at the company, which is called "1/9" in reference to the September 1 date of the 1969 Libyan revolution.

"Preparations are underway to create a satellite television channel which will be launched in 2007," he said.

"The first year, the channel will be made up of 60% Libyans and 40% foreigners," Mushri said without elaborating.

The company signed a $16m contract with the German company Heidelberg to build a modern printing facility and will open to Western publications, Mushri said.

"We have signed several contracts with international printing houses to distribute in Libya around 50 international and Arab publications, namely the US magazine Newsweek, Germann's Der Speigel and the French newspaper Le Monde."

Mushri added that the publications "will not be censored."

These publications were allowed in Libya but were censored before an international embargo was imposed in 1992 only to be lifted seven years later.

"We will publish in September a daily in cooperation with the British Financial Times," Mushri said.

"It will be a variety publication including politics and sports. Its door will be open to all Arab and Libyan journalists," he said.

Seif al-Islam Kadhafi has criticised Libyan newspapers for being "bland" and said "nobody reads them," and has called for "freeing the media from the stranglehold of the state."

However, the head of Libya's press association and editor of the Al-Jamamhiriya newspaper, Abdel Razzak al-Daheshe, said he was opposed to the appearance of private media.

Privatization "will limit" the media's freedom because they will be "influenced by the orientation of the owner," he said.

However, Abdel Salam Aouir, a member of the Libyan journalists' syndicate, said the development was "an important addition because Libyan media are behind (other countries) and this project will radically fix the problem."

Libya has four official newspapers as well as one state television and one state radio station.

- AFP