Journalists protest

Tripoli, 13 May:

Journalists affiliated with the Commission of Media Support and Encouragement staged a protest on Saturday in front of the . . .[restrict]Commission offices. They were demanding the dismissal of Commission officials and their replacement by people whom they said should have greater experience of the press. They accuse Commission’s Steering Committee of failing to carry out its job.

The protest was joined by employees of “February” newspaper and those from the commission’s printing plant who have been on strike for over 10 days.

The editor of Al-Bilad newspaper, Alhadi Al-Qarqati, which was suspended by the commission accused it of acting unfairly by allowing a new newspaper to be published with the name “Al-Bilad Now” and forcing the employees of the old “Al-Bilad” paper to work for the new paper or have their salaries terminated.

He said that such procedures seemed all too similar to those of the former regime. He cited the example of Qaddafi’s last prime minister Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi suspending the “Oea” newspaper and replacing it with the “Sabah Oea” without any regard to the newspaper’s employees.

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