The Benghazi free press

All of this free media is vital counterweight to Libya State TV. While its cult like focus on Gadhafi and shamelessly twisted news reporting may seem laughable to people outside Libya,  many Libyans still watch it and believe that at least some of it must be true.

Almost everyone involved is young with very little experience. Most started out as ‘citizen journalists’ and they have delighted in telling me how they beat Gadhafi by uploading videos and pictures, getting the news out to the world of the first wave of the atrocities in the early day of the crisis, even though Gadhafi had ‘switched off’ the (already heavily censored) Internet.

The Internet is still a key battleground but now there is an organised team of students who work day in and day out on websites and social media. They told me that they wanted to make sure that the world does not forget them. They said they also feel that through their personal contact online that they are keeping hope alive for those who still have access to the net in the areas under Gadhafi’s control. 

Their enthusiasm was inspiring but I have especially enjoyed talking to the journalists who worked as journalists under the old regime. They seem like birds astonished that they can fly after years of living in a cage. Decades of frustration are now flowing from their pens.

Many of the journalists told me that they expect to return to their day jobs as doctors or lawyers or students when calm returns to Libya. Others said that they have caught the bug and want to continue with journalism. I listened in on a great deal of lively discussion on how to protect media freedoms in the future. They talked about the urgent need for new laws, including for the media. 

For some, a whole new justice system needs to be built from scratch. 

One man talked about the individual responsibilities that came with journalism. As I listened, I enjoyed the irony of the fact that these people were freely discussing a new rule of law when they are basing themselves in a courthouse which until a few months had been passing sentence on those who criticised the regime. The foreign correspondents who come by this building from time to time have their experience, their laptops and their satellite link ups.  

These local ‘citizen’ journalists have notepads, Facebook and a vision.

Peach works at the UK Special Envoy’s Mission in Benghazi.  He is a former Press Officer at the British Embassy in Algiers.