Libyan rebels launch their own TV station

LIBYAN rebels have launched their first home grown satellite TV station, trying to counter the regime’s powerful media machine, which churns out Muammar Gaddafi’s message, depicts the opposition as terrorists and drums up patriotic fervour by beaming images of burning buildings hit by NATO strikes.

Libya Alhurra, or Free Libya, began broadcasting last night, a major step in the rebels’ attempts to get their message to the Libyan public, whose main source of information on the crisis in their country has been Gaddafi’s TV and radio.

Thousands of Libyans gathered in a public square in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to watch the first broadcasts on a large screen, celebrating a new-found freedom from 40 years of media oppression.