Cyber-dissident reportedly arrested in Tobruk

Reporters Without Borders today called for the release of cyber-dissident Abdel Razak Al Mansouri, whose arrest on 12 January for criticising the Libyan government on a UK-based website has just been reported. There has been no word of him since his detention. "The authorities already control all the traditional media and now they are trying to gag the Internet, the last window on the outside world still accessible to Libyan citizens," the press freedom organization said. "This is major blow for human rights activists who have found the Internet to be an effective tool for gathering and disseminating information," Reporters Without Borders added. Al Mansouri's arrest has not been confirmed by the authorities. It reportedly took place on the evening of 12 January in the eastern city of Tobruk. He is said to have been transferred to a prison in Tripoli two days later. His family have had no news of him since his arrest. He began posting articles on the UK-based website http://www.akhbar-libya.com in 2004. A 52-year-old bookseller, he wrote about social issues and criticised human rights violations by the Libyan authorities. Libyan, which is ranked 154th in the Reporters Without Borders classification of 167 countries according to their respect for press freedom, has developed the Internet quickly in the past five years. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (www.hrinfo.net) estimates that it now has about a million Internet users.