On 23 August 2013, unidentified assailants stormed the headquarters of the Libya Aljadidah newspaper in Tripoli and seized the office equipment to ban the newspaper from resuming its work and publishing its issue on time.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) condemns the continuing targeting of media and press institutions in Libya at the hands of armed groups that use violence in order to terrorize and to muzzle the voices of journalists. On 23 August 2013, unidentified assailants stormed the headquarters of the Libya Aljadidah newspaper in Tripoli.
They seized the headquarter’s equipment with the goal of banning the newspaper from resuming its work and publishing its issue on time.
It is reported that the violent acts and brute attacks against activists, journalists and media professionals by armed groups have been escalating during the last few weeks in an effort to sabotage journalists’ transfer of information to the public. On 9 August, journalist Ezz El-Din Koussad was killed by armed men, and prominent opposition lawyer Abdel Sallam El-Mesmary was shot dead outside his house on 26 July.
“It is a pity that the political groups in Libya continue to target media professionals and journalists amid the ongoing failure of the authorities to restore security to the Libyan street and provide the protection essential to reporters,” said ANHRI.
The network added that “all factions in Libya should accept the nature of working in media and should not consider it a part of any conflict in Libya. They must understand the significant role of journalism and media in building the new democratic state. Also, journalists are not on any side of the conflict and their duty is to keep the public informed of what is happening in the country.”
ANHRI calls on the Libyan authorities to conduct an urgent investigation in order to identify those who stormed the newspaper’s headquarters and to put those responsible on trial. It also awaits the announcing of the names of those who killed Ezz El-Din Koussad and Abdel Sallam El-Mesmary.
