Journalists under attack

Committee to Protect Journalists tells us that in recent days over 40 attacks on press have been documented in Libya.

Ali Hassan Al Jaber, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was killed in Libya last Saturday, the first known journalist to be killed in the current Libyan conflict. 

Al Jaber was returning to the eastern city of Benghazi from a nearby town after filing a report, when unknown fighters opened fire on a car he and his colleagues were travelling in.

Two others were also shot in the apparent ambush, with three bullets hitting Al Jaber – one through the heart. 

Wadah Khanfar, the director-general of Al Jazeera, said that the network “will not remain silent” and will pursue those behind the ambush through legal channels.

Mohamed Abdel Dayem, Middle East coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, told Al Jazeera that in recent days, the watchdog has documented more than 40 attacks on the press in Libya. 

These include some 25 arbitrary detentions, five assaults, two attacks on news facilities, and the jamming of  television transmissions and internet service.

I spoke to Abdel Dayem at the Al Jazeera Forum held in Doha this past weekend. He said that the killing of Al Jaber came “on the heels of an unprecedented campaign of intimidation” against journalists. Here is the interview: