Al-Zahf Al-Akhdar reappears

The official daily Al-Zahf Al-Akhdar (The Green March) reappeared on newssstands on 27 October. It had been shut down on 13 October after criticising two Gulf states. _____________________ 15.10.2003 An official newspaper suspended Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières) has asked for more information from Libya about the suspension of the official daily Al-Zahf Al-Akhdar (The Green Step). The daily was suspended by the standing revolutionary court on 13 October for having « damaged the national interest and harmed Libya's position », AFP reported. The press freedom organisation asked for the reasons for and the length of the suspension and pointed out that the country has no independent newspapers nor the least freedom of expression. Al-Zahf Al-Akhdar (organ of Libya's Revolutionary Committee), as well as other official publications, reportedly criticised and insulted Arab countries, including Bahrain and Kuwait. Some articles apparently reported that the kingdom of Bahrain could not be considered « a state, a half state or a quarter state » Kuwait was apparently defined as a « topographical mistake, which has never been corrected ». The suspension of this newspaper comes during a strained political climate between Libya and the Arab states. The Libyan leader on 4 October announced a clean break with the Arab states and asked the People 's Congress, the Libyan grassroots political structure, to give their agreement to Libya pulling out of the Arab League. In the same speech, Colonel Kadhafi went as far as denying the human qualities of Arabs. His statement produced a damning reply from the Kuwaiti deputy prime minister for cabinet affairs, who told the Kuwait newspaper Al Rai Al-Am: « Mouammar Kadhafi will go to hell ». « One wonders what logic there is in suspending an official newspaper which serves the government and whose mistake is to reflect the tenor of Colonel Kadhafi's defamatory statements », said Robert Ménard, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders. « Could this be a concession to Arab states insulted by Kadhafi days before the publication of the incriminating articles? »