By Ajnedin Mustafa.
Tunis, 31 January 2015:
The protection of journalists is a national duty and must be carried out by all security . . .[restrict]offices, the head of Information, Culture and Antiquities Authority Omar Gawairi told the Libya Herald.
In an interview with this paper, Gawairi said that all security personnel have been instructed to support, protect and facilitate the movement of journalists.
He bemoaned the fact, as attested in a recent Human Rights Watch release, that Tripoli is mostly empty now of journalists and that most media personnel, Libyans as well as foreigners, have left because of safety concerns.
Journalists, said Gawairi, feared attack by militias. Furthermore, the chaos in Libya that has resulted from a lack of rule of law and state deterrence of such attacks, has been capitalised on by terrorists. International terrorist organisations, claimed Gawairi, had used the current situation to sow confusion and further chaos.
Journalists were now choosing to use the internet to report from a distance, he said.
Gawairi, however, wants to those who would attack journalists and media outlets to be made accountable for doing so. He said he hoped that media personnel would be able to operate freely again within Libya. [/restrict]
