Baha’uddin Sharif, a 26-year-old journalist who once worked at Al-Assema satellite channel, escaped to Turkey last February after militants in Tripoli published a list, including his name, of wanted journalists. When his office was burned in August, 2014, Sharif fled the capital and was on the run for seven months until he reached safety.

“I will only return home when security and stability are restored,” said Sharif. “Practicing journalism in Libya poses a threat to reporters because of violence by illegal groups,” he said.

Baha’uddin Sharif, a 26-year-old journalist who once worked at Al-Assema satellite channel, escaped to Turkey last February after militants in Tripoli published a list, including his name, of wanted journalists. When his office was burned in August, 2014, Sharif fled the capital and was on the run for seven months until he reached safety.

“I will only return home when security and stability are restored,” said Sharif. “Practicing journalism in Libya poses a threat to reporters because of violence by illegal groups,” he said.

Denouncements

 Journalist Mohammed Ashour, 43, left Benghazi nine months ago to settle in Istanbul, after receiving threats by the two warring factions in the city.

Ashour claims he faced defamation by a fellow journalist at Ajwa.net, the first media organization he worked for, before it was attacked and its offices were ransacked in November 2014. His colleague posted pictures of Ashour and his colleagues on Facebook captioned with abusive phrases.

Ashour says the security and living conditions in Benghazi made working impossible because he could not express his opinion about the ongoing crisis in Libya for fear of causing harm to his family.

Mass exodus

Reporters without Borders has reported seven assassination cases against journalists in Libya, including journalist Muftah Abu Zeid and political activist Abdussalam Mismari, in addition to 37 abducted journalists over the past three years. According to the organization, over 40 Libyan journalists fled to other countries in 2014.

This crisis, or to be more precise, this mass exodus of journalists has widely resonated across global media circles. In a report published by Reporters without Borders in April 2015, Programme Director Lucie Morillon said: “The overwhelming violence to which journalists are now exposed in Libya is making it virtually impossible for them to work and is forcing them to flee en masse to neighbouring countries. This situation is all the more alarming because the news media have a vital role to play in conflict zones. The safety of journalists should be an absolute priority for national and international actors in Libya.”

Assaults and arrests

During the first quarter of this year, Libyan Center for Freedom of Press reported 38 cases of assault against freedom of the media: seven arrests of journalists, 16 cases of threats and suspension, and 15 cases of assault against media outlets.

Meanwhile, Libyan Center for Defense of Journalists reported 29 cases of assault against journalists and media organizations last September and October, prompting many journalists to leave the country in search of safer places.

Working now as Arraed’s satellite channel newsroom supervisor and programme director in Istanbul, Ashour says he feels more secure during his work and reporting of the news of Libya and Benghazi with no restrictions or pressures.

Back to square one

“There is no longer neutral media in Libya. I have received threats of kidnapping and murder,”  says Libyan journalist Suleiman Baroni, 23, who went to Egypt in September, 2014.

Baroni, who worked as a correspondent for Russia Today in Tripoli, was returning from his office to his hometown of Jaduint the Nafusa Mountains last August, when he was arrested at a military checkpoint in the city of Zawiya, 40 kilometers west of Tripoli, for five days on charges of inciting conflict and rebellion against the February Revolution. Luckily, he says, he was not subjected to torture.

“We went back to square one where we started after the fall of the regime,” Baroni says. “There is no law in Libya to protect journalists.”

Baroni says his present job as a newscaster and talk-show moderator at Wassat Radio and TV in Egypt has given him some freedom to move and provide unbiased reports. “I have a great yearning for the Libyan street and to work as a reporter. The prevailing conditions in my country prompted me to leave, but I will go back there one day,” he says.

Absent laws

Chairman of Tripoli-based Press Support and Promotion Agency (PSPA) Mahmoud Abu Shima claims that journalists in Libya face great difficulties in getting firsthand information due to the violence they are exposed to. Despite the proliferation of arms and the extraordinary situation Libya is going through at present, says Abu Shima, the PSPA defends journalists’ safety everywhere by the force of law and it has approached the Tripoli government to enact strict laws to ensure journalists’ safety and rights.