Government daily closed for a week

Reporters Without Borders today reiterated its call for press freedom in Libya after the government daily Al-Zahf al-Akhdar (The Green March) was suspended for week on 27 January for suggesting that Col. Muammar Gaddafi should stop being the "guide of the revolution" and start acting as a president instead. "This newspaper was immediately censored for daring to criticise the regime and ask Col. Gaddafi to play his role as president properly, so we once again call on the Libyan authorities to allow a free and independent press to express itself," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said. "Despite Col. Gaddafi's concessions in the international arena aimed at giving his regime a more favourable and open image, he has still not made the least gesture as regards press freedom, which is totally non-existent in his country," Ménard stressed. The Libyan authorities said Al-Zahf al-Akhdar was suspended for "serious mistakes" and for "publishing articles contrary to the power of the masses." Agence France-Presse said the newspaper had recently carried an article calling on Col. Gaddafi to fully exercise the power of a president and to put an end to the rhetoric about his title as "guide of the revolution." The article said the revolution had matured and it was now time to change the rules of the game and create a model state. "The warrior who has led this revolution must now build the state and truly become president," it added. Al-Zahf al-Akhdar was previously suspended for a week in October after insulting and criticising Bahrain and Kuwait. Ménard pointed out that Col. Gaddafi was not content with silencing the Libyan press, but also tried to pursue journalists who criticised him abroad. "It's high time the colonel changed his way of viewing the press," Ménard added. On 25 January, Libya's ambassador to Rabat filed a complaint against Mustapha Alaoui, the editor of the weekly Al-Ousbou, over an article about Libya's decision to renounce all nuclear weapons programmes. The article called on Libya to compensate the families of Moroccans who were killed by Libyan arms supplied to the Polisario Front. It was accompanied by a cartoon considered defamatory by Col. Gaddafi because it showed the silhouette of a figure with its trousers down. "There was nothing (in the cartoon) that identified Gaddafi, so the complaint is without any merit," Alaoui told Reporters Without Borders. "But Gaddafi tries to harass journalists who dare to question his policies, even outside Libya," Alaoui said.