libya_al_hurra.jpg

April 18th, 2011 - 10:05 UTC
by Andy Sennitt.

The kiosks overflow with newspapers, the radio waves praise the insurgency and a television channel is about to be launched. Media in the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi are breathing one name: “Free Libya.” “During the past 42 years, there was only (Moamer) Gaddafi on television,” Salim Fakhir, who worked for 35 years with state television, said of the Libyan leader. “We worked for him because we were paid and had to feed the family, but our heart was not in it.”

This 54-year-old man with salt-and-pepper hair and spectacles on the tip of his nose, works with colleague Abdelrahim Farawi to make the first batch of programmes for a television channel, Libya Alhurra (Free Libya). The channel is under the aegis of the Transitional National Council (TNC), the rebel shadow government controlling eastern Libya and engaged in a fiery rebellion against Gaddafi’s forces. Arrangements for a satellite uplink through Arabsat or Nilesat have still to be completed, so the channel is busying itself now with preparing programmes.

“For the past 42 years, it was a one man show. Now we are going to allow freedom of expression, the diffusion of all points of view,” said Mohammed Fannush, media head TNC. When asked if the views of Gaddafi loyalists would be broadcast, he said: “In future, even those. But during the war, no … Anything that does not support Gaddafi can be presented.”

Saleh Majdi, 44, a telecom specialist with Libya Alhurra television and radio said the new channel would be the “voice of the revolution,” but acknowledged that funding was a problem at the moment. Libya Alhurra radio, meanwhile, has been broadcasting news of the rebellion since it began - on AM in government-controlled areas and FM in the rebel-held east.

It has also built a brand new studio in a suburb of Benghazi with the aim of establishing a second FM channel dedicated to Koranic recitations. Its radio broadcasts at the moment include the latest news of the rebellion between songs of Arab divas Fairuz and Latifa and the works of once-banned poets.

The radio aims to raise its quality of production, hoping to compete with Al Jazeera Arabic channel which airs large volume of continuous information it began broadcasting from last month on FM in Benghazi. Speaking about the radio, Mr Majdi said it too was the “voice of revolution, of the people”, adding that the best way to bring down Gaddafi was to close his television.

“We try to tell the international community to shut down his TV. This is the biggest help they can do for us … If NATO breaks down his TV … in 24 hours he will be down … The only thing he has is the media.”