Foreign reporters under ‘House Arrest’ in Tripoli Rixos hotel

Rixos Al Nasr Tripoli is a luxurious 5 star hotel in Libya which the General Authority for Foreign Media turned into ‘compulsory accommodation’, or House Arrest, for around 200 reporters. These reporters represent some the biggest news media agencies in the world;  BBC, CNN, Sky News, Russia Today, TF1, France24, Alarabiya, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph (just to name a few), in addition to world renowned news media agencies American Associated Brass, British Reuters and French AFP. The hotel is the sole possessor of high speed internet in the country. The Authority claims that the reporters were taken in because they were not reporting the events taking place in Libya objectively or honestly. Under Labor Laws, the reporters were forbidden from leaving the hotel on their own unless they are accompanied by someone from the General Authority for Foreign Media and using the Authority’s own cars as well. Authority representatives present themselves as volunteers whose only concern and aim is to provide foreign reporters with safe working conditions and easy access to interviews. But the truth is, those representatives’ only concern is to monitor the news written and published by foreign reporters- watching their every move in fear of reporters revealing to the world secrets of the Libyan Regime. The main gate to the hotel is guarded round the clock by 10 different security forces who forbid entry to anyone unless they can show a warrant coming from both the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Leaving the hotel for personal reasons is also forbidden. The hotel is facing a ‘Media War’ where foreign reporters are refusing to work under the instructions of the ‘leadership,’. The leadership will allow them to cover what the Libyan Regime is calling ‘leader-supportive citizen activities’ which really are insignificant protests produced by the leaders of the same exact people who are seen at Bab al-Aziziya camp by night and in public squares by day. In addition, foreign reporters are often hurt; there are constant complaints to their home agencies that they are being mistreated because of the content of the news they are sending home. Moftah Alzurouq is an escort working for the Authority; his job is to escort foreign reporters to Bab al-Aziziya. He told ArabsToday: “the Authority’s main problem with the reporters is that they do not report the truth. The reporters change the truth and claim that their agencies have the last word on what will be published and what won’t.” As for the compulsory hotel surveillance Moftah explained, “there are two reasons for escorts: one is fear of the reaction of Libyan citizens towards reporters who work for foreign agencies opposed to the regime, and secondly some reporters may invent stories and claim they’ve interviewed certain people only after they were able to  be separated  from their escorts.” The second reason was denied by reporters, stressing that their independence is the number one priority. Additionally, they stressed that under no circumstances would they report news from the perspective of the regime only; which has captured  American, British and French spies who gained illegal entry into Libya using fake identities. During my presence in Libya over the past week, the challenge of working as a reporter in Tripoli especially with the lack of freedom in transport and the inability to talk to citizens became extremely apparent. We were escorted at all times and on many occasions came across pro-regime protests which were obviously organized by the regime beforehand. Gaddafi may still enjoy some popularity but it is nowhere near to the extent that the authorities make it out to be. For example, the authorities organized a ‘Millions men’ protest last week by bringing in citizens from neighboring cities; however they still did not make up millions of protestors. Tripoli authorities have refused to tell us the opinions of the opposing sides, explaining that saying what the opposition wants would be a “service to the Zionist agenda to divide up Libya” and would not do any favors to the regime in any way. As a reporter, I have visited Benghazi before and the work conditions were much better than those of Tripoli. Libyan authorities treat anyone whose passport has been stamped by the Benghazi International airport authorities or Doha International airport authorities as an enemy. This is exactly what happened to me, when my escort introduced me to anyone he would even say, “he went to Benghazi and Doha after the Libyan events took place.” But the strangest thing that’s happened to us was upon our departure from Libya where a detailed search was carried out by Libyan Intelligence and we had to show every single picture or video we’d taken that had anything against Gaddafi (who should understand that if a reporter’s freedom is restricted then the truth won’t come out) especially when working in areas controlled by the regime. Gaddafi’s men are threatening to forcefully enter the Rixos hotel and attack the foreign reporters kept in there.