Libya TV coverage gets serious
March 13, 2011
By Chris Forrester
MBC-backed Arabic news channel Alarabiya continues to suffer deliberate signal jamming, while an Al Jazeera cameraman lost his life in Libya on Saturday. Earlier last week a BBC Arabic crew were beaten up by Libyan government supporters.
MBC on Saturday night named Libyan intelligence units for continuing to deliberately jam its satellite signals on Nilesat. Alarabiya has been off air from its normal frequencies all week. Viewers have been given new frequencies to tune into. “A Libyan intelligence centre southeast of (the capital) Tripoli is jamming Alarabiya channel but viewers can see the channel on new frequencies,” Alarabiya said.in its statement.
Qatar-based Al Jazeera has suffered even worse problems. In addition to its signals being jammed, a senior cameraman was killed on March 12. At 19.07 GMT, BBC Monitoring reported that the news channel carried a live interview with Waddah Khanfar, director of Al-Jazeera Network, in its Doha studio, commented on the killing of Ali Hasan al-Jabir, described as the head of the Filming Department at Al-Jazeera TV.
Khanfar said: “To those who are trying to muzzle Al-Jazeera through criminal acts, killing its correspondents and those working for it, blocking its signal, or jamming its signal, I would like to tell them that no one can hide the truth. We live in times where the truth is defended by soldiers who believe in a true message, and we will continue to deliver our message no matter what the cost.”