As tensions rise in Libya, so does pressure on the media

By Morten Toustrup, PhD fellow at IMS

When Libya won this year’s African Nations Championship on 1 February it had a rare uniting effect on the troubled country. But only for that one evening. Three years on from the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi, divisions in Libya are deepening and putting the nascent media sector under severe pressure

Division and tensions

Libya’s politicians have so far been unable to deliver progress in several much-needed areas. This is due in part to a Congress deadlocked in continued political infighting between those who sympathise with the Muslim Brotherhood and the leading nationalist party.

The lack of tangible results has made for an increasingly hostile public sentiment against the Congress and growing fear over members of the Muslim Brotherhood gaining power in the legislative body.

The mandate of the Congress expired on 7 February, but was extended to 24 December 2014 on the grounds that no other legislative body exists to take its place until a constitution is in place.

The country is now set to elect an assembly on 20 February that will draft a constitution intended to advance the transition to democracy and break the political stalemate.

Announced only on 30 January, the election is controversial because the short three week time period leaves little time to inform voters about the candidates. Only 1.1 million people out of an estimated 3-3.5 million electorate have registered to cast their vote and Libya’s Amazigh population has chosen to boycott the election by not presenting candidates for the committee and by encouraging people not to vote.

With these major shortcomings, the constitutional assembly will be drafting a constitution for a population that may not feel represented by the Committee. This could in turn risk exacerbating already existing tensions in the already divided country.

Intensified pressure on the media

2014 has already seen an alarming amount of abductions and attacks on media workers and destruction of media houses.

On 5 February, the office of the Benghazi-based tv-station, Libya Al-Ahrar, was attacked with the director of the channel abducted earlier on. Less than a week later, on 11 February, three reporters working for the state-owned Sebha-based Al-Wataniya were abducted. On the same day, another journalist working for the state-owned news agency, LANA, was kidnapped in Tripoli, while rocket-propelled grenades hit the Tripoli offices of Alaseema TV.

These attacks suggest, if nothing else, that the increased public resistance towards Libya’s militias that culminated in November last year did little to take the pressure off of Libya’s media.

Media freedoms undermined

It is not only the country’s militias that put pressure on the media. On 22 January, the Congress passed a decree that would allow the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Communications, and the Ministry of Media to ban satellite tv-stations critical of the government and of parties involved in the February 2011 uprising against then-President Muammar Gaddafi.

The Congress maintains the decree is intended to halt those “whose purpose is the destabilisation of the country or creating divisions among Libyans”, but international human rights groups argue the wording of the decree is so vague it could be used as a pretext for arbitrary arrests.

With an increasingly unpopular Congress, controversial elections for a constitution drafting committee, and an increase in violent clashes between militias, Libya and its media are faced with immense challenges to overcome.

Despite such bleak outlooks, the Libyan people display impressive perseverance and will not be giving up their freedom to express themselves. But if the nascent media of Libya is to continue to develop as a free and professional sector, it needs all the support it can get.

IMS works to support Libya’s media through the establishment of the Libyan Media Institute (LMI), a local non-governmental organisation. The Institute will respond to the needs of the country’s media through a capacity building progamme for newspapers, through journalism training, an ongoing mapping of the Libyan media system, and by conducting audience research on behalf of local media outlets within the LMI.

Morten Toustrup is a PhD fellow at IMS and is doing his research on the development of the Libyan media landscape.