War on the Media: Journalists under Attack in Libya

56 Pages·2015·0.4 MB·English

H U M A N
WAR ON THE MEDIA
R I G H T S
Journalists under Attack in Libya
W A T C H
War on the Media
Journalists under Attack in Libya
Copyright © 2015 Human Rights Watch
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-1-6231-32309
Cover design by Rafael Jimenez

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FEBRUARY 2015 ISBN: 978-1-6231-32309

War on the Media
Journalists under Attack in Libya
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1
Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 4
I. Background: Libya’s Media Landscape ............................................................................ 5
II. Attack on the Media since 2011 ...................................................................................... 11
Killings and Attempted Killings ............................................................................................... 13
Attacks on Media Offices and Facilities ................................................................................... 19
Threats, Harassment, Assaults, and Kidnappings .................................................................... 25
International Law .................................................................................................................... 34
III. Journalists and Criminal Law........................................................................................ 36
Criminal Defamation Cases against Journalists ....................................................................... 36
Laws Unduly Restricting Freedom of Expression ...................................................................... 41
International Law .................................................................................................................... 44
Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 47
To the Office of the General Prosecutor ................................................................................... 47
To the House of Representatives and any Successive Legislatures ........................................... 47
To the Interim Government of Libya ........................................................................................ 48
To All Non-State Actors, Members of Militias and other Armed Formations .............................. 48
To the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) .......................................................................... 48
To United Nations Mission for Libya ....................................................................................... 48
To the Human Rights Council Member States ......................................................................... 49
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 50

Summary

The revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship in 2011 following a popular
uprising and civil war, transformed Libya’s media landscape. Libyan journalists started to
report the news, express opinions, and criticize politicians like never before.

In the first year after the 2011 uprising, private newspapers and magazines proliferated in a
climate of newly found freedom. The number of Libyan satellite TV stations broadcasting
from inside and outside Libya increased from two at the end of the Gaddafi era to more than
50. The number of publications rose from four daily newspapers and a few specialized
publications to dozens of publications. Suddenly journalists were publicly debating
substantive political issues that hitherto few had dared to discuss even in whispers.

However this flourishing media now finds its new freedoms under threat as heavily armed
militias have brought the post-Gaddafi state to its knees. Key institutions, including the
judiciary, police and army, have collapsed in some major cities including Benghazi and
Derna. Officials are powerless to maintain security, or to apprehend or prosecute those who
commit crimes, including murders and assassinations. Militia members have benefited from
near immunity against prosecution since 2011, and very few cases have gone to court.

The impact of the deteriorating political and security situation on Libya’s media has been
profound. The media landscape has become polarized, chaotic, politicized, and violent.

This report documents attacks against journalists and the offices and facilities of media
outlets since the 2011 uprising, including threats, assaults, kidnappings, and killings and
addresses the failure of the government to protect journalists and the media, and hold
perpetrators of attacks on them accountable. Human Rights Watch is not aware of a single
instance in which officials prosecuted a perpetrator of an attack against a journalist or
media outlet since 2011. The report also documents criminal prosecutions of journalists for
defamation and libel, on the basis of problematic laws that continue to unduly restrict
freedom of expression.

Between mid-2012 and November 2014, Human Rights Watch documented at least 91
cases of threats and assaults against journalists, including against at least 14 female
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journalists and media workers. This figure includes 30 cases of kidnappings or short-term
arbitrary detentions of journalists, mainly by militias, and eight killings of reporters. In a
few cases, the journalists may have been unintentionally injured or killed while reporting
on violent incidents. But in most cases documented by Human Rights Watch it was clear
that armed groups targeted journalists to punish or censor their reporting. In the same
period at least ten journalists fled the country after being attacked or threatened. Human
Rights Watch also documented 26 cases of armed attacks against the offices of television
and radio stations.

Journalists also continue to face legal hazards not only because sweeping Gaddafi-era
laws restricting press freedom have not been repealed but also on account of newer laws
restricting freedom of expression promulgated by Libya’s interim authorities since the end
of 2011. Prosecutors have pressed criminal charges against journalists and civilians have
pursued lawsuits against them for slander, insult, and libel.

The shaky security situation in Libya has deteriorated dramatically since May 2014. Retired
general Khalifa Hiftar, reinstated by the government in November and allied with the newly
elected House of Representatives based in Tobruk, has pledged to “eradicate terrorism” by
leading a military campaign, known as Libya Dignity, against Ansar al-Sharia and other
affiliated Islamist militias in the eastern region. The clashes there have morphed into a full-
blown armed conflict which has now spread to western Libya, including the capital, Tripoli.

Journalists have not been immune from the violence as militias have attacked media
headquarters and homes of journalists and forced several journalists and media
professionals to flee the country.

Although the work of prosecutors and judicial authorities is hindered by the near-
breakdown of law and order, and ongoing conflicts, they can still play and important role in
holding to account perpetrators of crimes, including attacks against journalists and should
continue to investigate, where possible, attacks against journalists.

Legislators, particularly members of a future permanent parliament, should repeal articles
of the Libyan Penal Code and other laws that provide criminal penalties for defamation and
insults to religion and ensure that all laws that impact free expression retain only those
limitations that are necessary and proportionate. Members of the Constitution Drafting
WAR ON THE MEDIA 2
Assembly (CDA) have a historical opportunity to enshrine a strong protection of human
rights, including freedom of expression, in the draft constitution to ensure that speech
cannot be criminalized in future legislation. The elected government of Libya as well as
non-state actors and members of militias are bound by international law obligations to
protect journalists, as much as they are bound to protect civilians, during armed conflicts.

Human Rights Council member states need to ensure that an international investigative
mechanism is established to document serious human rights violations including those
that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, such as politically motivated
assassinations and attacks on journalists, in view of the Libyan judiciary’s limited ability
to conduct investigations and prosecute perpetrators. Members of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN Security Council, which unanimously referred the Libya
situation to the court in 2011, should ensure that the ICC has sufficient resources and
support to be in a position to pursue investigations into ongoing serious crimes.

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Methodology

This report is based on research Human Rights Watch conducted in Libya, mainly between
March and May 2014, and updated in November 2014.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 40 people, including victims of attacks and assaults,
witnesses to threats and attacks, journalists, media activists, lawyers, and political
commentators. Interviews were conducted in person in Arabic or English.

Researchers carried out follow-up interviews by telephone and email. Human Rights Watch
informed all interviewees of the purpose of its research and offered no payment or other
inducements to those who provided information for this report. While most interviewees
were alone during the interview, some were accompanied by friends.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed a range of public materials, including relevant Libyan
legislation, reports by non-governmental organizations, media reports, postings on
Facebook and other Internet and social media sites, and video clips relating to attacks
on journalists.

Human Rights Watch attempted to meet with the minister of information on two occasions
in March 2014 in Tripoli. Due to changes in government and the break out of armed conflict
in July in Tripoli and environs, Human Rights Watch researchers were not able to meet with
meet with government representatives and discuss the findings of the report.

WAR ON THE MEDIA 4
I. Background: Libya’s Media Landscape

During his 42 years in power, Muammar Gaddafi used the media to propagate his political
and social views, which he codified in the mid-1970s in the Green Book. That manifesto
included a set of basic principles to govern citizens’ rights and responsibilities and the
basic functioning of the state.1

In the Green Book chapter on the media, Gaddafi dismissed the notion of press freedom as
a byproduct of the “problem of democracy,” and laid out the framework that shaped
Libya’s repressive media policies for more than three decades. His premise was that the
media is a tool to advance a group’s ideas, pushing aside any individual right to free
speech and opinion.

The press is a means of expression for society: it is not a means of
expression for private individuals or corporate bodies. Therefore, logically
and democratically, it should not belong to either one of them.
[…] The democratic press is that which is issued by a People's Committee,
comprising all the groups of society. Only in this case, and not otherwise,
will the press or any other information medium be democratic, expressing
the viewpoints of the whole society, and representing all its groups.2

The Gaddafi government owned most of Libya’s print and broadcast media and imposed
strict controls on them. The government also tightly controlled its official state news
agency, Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA).

Journalists were precariously situated during the Gaddafi years. They could only report
information and express views permitted by Gaddafi’s information office. Otherwise they
risked being summoned for questioning by agents of one of the much-feared intelligence

1 The Green Book was published in three parts in 1975: Part I: The Solution of the Problem of Democracy; Part II: The Solution
of the Economic Problem; and Part III: The Social Basis of the Third Economic Theory: Muammar Al-Qaddafi, The Green Book
part 1/2/3, http://www.mathaba.net/gci/theory/gb.htm (accessed December 13, 2012).
2 Ibid.

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