By Sami Zaptia.
London, 21 March 2021:
The Libyan Media Corporation, the Libyan entity in charge of all official state media, announced today that it has reunified the western and eastern-based Libyan news agency, LANA.
The official state news agency split in 2014 when the ‘‘Libya Dawn’’ Tripoli militia coup caused the caretaker government to flee Tripoli to eastern Libya where the newly elected parliament, the House of Representatives, took its constitutional seat.
Reunifying the state narrative
The split of LANA has meant that Libya has had two official narratives since 2014 – one representing the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and another representing the government and internationally recognized parliament in the east.
The two conflicting narratives were very divisive and contributed greatly to disrupting social cohesion.
The narrative was polarized with regards to the definition of terrorists, Islamists and militias. It was especially polarized when reporting on or referring to Khalifa Hafter, his Libyan National Army (LNA) and the war on Tripoli.
The reunification reflects the political reunification and the swearing-in by parliament of the Government of National Unity on 15 March.
