Libyan rebels launch TV station

Libya’s rebels have launched their first homegrown 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 waving flags 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.

“This is freedom. I hope this shows the true colour of Libyan people and their real faith in a new, free Libya,” station co-founder Zuhair Albarasi said from the square, which has become a rallying point for the revolt against Gaddafi.

The channel was born out of an internet video streaming site launched by Mr Albarasi and fellow Libyan businessman Mohammed al-Nabbous, who since the uprising began in mid-February searched for a way to show it to the world and to the Libyans themselves.

They started toting video cameras to protests, jerry-rigged a home satellite system and turned to the web. The danger of their effort was quickly made clear: Mr Al-Nabbous, 27, was killed in Benghazi on March 19, shot under the right eye by a sniper as he filmed rebels armed with rocket launchers preparing to confront Gaddafi’s tanks as they approached the city. Benghazi was saved that day by the first international airstrikes.

Still, their site continued, streaming video and audio reports direct from the battle front, including audio of fighters and the sounds of whizzing bullets and whooshes of rocket launchers. It also hosts a chat room that draws Libyans inside and outside the country as well as sympathetic foreigners, in English and Arabic.

But in a country where internet access has been sharply curtailed for much of the population, the channel – hosted on Livestream – remains limited in its reach.

That made it vital to reach satellite TV, which reaches an estimated 90% of the Libyan public.

The Gulf nation of Qatar, which has been at the forefront of Arab nations assisting the rebels, hosts a pro-rebel Libyan station out of its capital, Doha. But Mr Albarasi and his colleagues in Benghazi were determined to launch one from their nation’s soil.

With the channel’s airing yesterday, Mr Albarasi paid tribute to his lost friend. “The relaunch of Libya Alhurra is done in his name,” he said. “We are all looking forward to providing the people of Libya with a professional and independent service.”

The rebels acknowledge that in the media war, Gaddafi has the upper hand so far, with his state-run TV and radio reaching across the country, including in the rebel-held east and the opposition’s de facto capital, Benghazi.

“Gaddafi’s media are very effective,” said Mr Albarasi. “We know because a lot of people still believe Gaddafi’s propaganda, even here in Benghazi.”