On Libyan Arab Jamahiriya's 30th anniversary, still no word of journalist arrested in 1973

As Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today inaugurated festivities marking the 30th anniversary of his proclamation of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Reporters Without Borders pointed out that there is still no news of Abdullah Ali Al-Sanussi Al-Darrat, a journalist who was arrested 34 years ago. “Six months after we visited Libya, nothing has changed,” the press freedom organisation said. “The authorities still have not given us any information about Al-Darrat, who has spent more time in prison than any other journalist in the world, or about the murder of journalist Daif Al Ghazal in 2005. The detente in Libya's international relations has had no impact on its internal policies and it continues to be one of the world's most repressive regimes as regards domestic critics.” Now aged about 60, Al-Darrat was arrested in 1973. Thirty-four years have gone by, but the circumstances of his arrest are still not known. Attempts by international human rights organisations to find out what has happened to him have all been in vain. Many observers think he probably died in detention but all requests to the Libyan authorities for information have remained unanswered. Meanwhile, those responsible for the murder of Al Ghazal, whose mutilated body was found on 1 June 2005, have still not been arrested and tried. Prior to his death, Al Ghazal wrote articles that were extremely critical of the government and the Movement of Revolutionary Committees. Libya became a “state of the masses” on 2 March 1977 in line with the “third universal theory” developed by Gaddafi in his Green Book. The “brother leader” says in his book that only the media that speaks in the name of the people are allowed and that “it is not democratically acceptable that an individual should own a means of dissemination and information (...) In this way, what the world calls ‘the problem of press freedom' is definitively and democratically resolved.” A Reporters Without Borders team visited Libya from 13 to 17 September at the invitation of the Union of Libyan Journalists. This was the press freedom organisation's first visit since it was formed in 1985. The team was able to meeting journalists, civil servants and government officials.