Tripoli has expelled foreign journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported yesterday that more than 20 foreign journalists have been told to leave Libya within 24 hours.
They include journalists from Channel 4, CNN, Fox News, The Independent, ITV, Le Figaro, Los Angeles Times, The Sunday Times and TheTimes (London), NBC News, The New York Times, RAI, and RTL.
No new visas will be issued.
“The journalists in Tripoli are already operating under severely restricted conditions, and now the Libyan government is trying to remove them entirely at a time when the presence of the international press is crucial,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “We have documented upward of 450 violations against the media in the region since January alone, including the killing of seven journalists; the numbers speak for themselves.”
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We are on the side of life. We should not intervene. We should (barely) condemn the violence. Amazing Maltese politicians. They were so deep inside the pocket, that they barely can crawl out of it.
Our politicians are in a very deep rut and it does not seem that they want to get out.
What is the Maltese Institute of Journalists (Naudi) going to say about this? Are they going to ask Muscat what to say?
Maybe he has yet to consult Julia Farrugia, who knows?
Gaddafi is dividing by zero‡ … and the Maltese government still takes him seriously. This is comedy at its most sad.
‡ http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Divide_by_zero
Maybe Malta should send John Dalli and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici as rapporteurs in lieu of foreign correspondents.
Dalli can set up a new ‘news agency’ earning him a few extra dinars which will make his life a bit more bearable while serving his sentence in Brussels.
KMB can serve as an analyst being a person of integrity, totally unbiased and having the ability to access Gaddafi at will.
Malta can then be proud to have provided the whole world with a vital service which the expelled principal actors could not possibly deliver.
Insejt lil Reno Calleja.
What about our toy journalists? Charlon and Jiulia must be very busy with local political commitment. Else Libya would surely have let them stay. Why? Insignificant.
PN ministers and Gonzi himself condemned Gaddafi. On Bondiplus last monday, Michael Falzon said Gonzi’s statement was premature. George Vella is such a useless politician, going out of context and all the time being careful not to upset Gaddafi just in case the latter holds on to power and he finds himself foreign affairs minister in two years’ time.
And Joseph is on holiday or was it an invitation from senior US diplomats? PN leaders were slow to condemn Gaddafi but at least they did for some time; Labour not yet.
Oh so that is what matters then – better late than never and we are ahead of the PL in waking up.
We need to have higher expectations of our members of parliament.
Being a ‘blood brother’ (according to Mintoff’s definition of Libyans), George Vella will never condemn Gaddafi. Neither will AST, KMB et al.
As far as Joseph is concerned, rumours have it that he is looking into getting a franchise from leading hamburger tossers to go into a head-to-head competition with McDonalds, just in case he is made to warm the Opposition benches for another 5 years starting 2013.
The transition to private business will be that much easier especially if he obtains valuable advice from Alfred Sant who was such an expert at running businesses at a profit.
Have the Libyans sacked the RAI journalist in Tripoli? I think last night he was still reporting from there