Reply #41: Libya's fledgling independent media [View All]

[pinboy3niner]

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Jess Hill reported this story on Saturday, September 10, 2011 08:05:00


ELIZABETH JACKSON: When the Libyan uprising began in February, there were no foreign journalists in the country and no independent Libyan journalists either. If you were a journalist in Libya at that time, you were reporting on behalf of the government.


But in that violent first week in Benghazi, even after Colonel Gaddafi had switched off the internet, Libya's first citizen journalist, Mohammed Nabbous, managed to establish a pirate internet connection to stream video reports online.


Since then, Libya's independent media industry has been booming. Everything has started from scratch: TV channels, radio stations, newspaper and internet publishers. But the people behind them have little or no understanding of how an independent media should work, let alone journalistic experience.


That's where people like Brian Conley have stepped in. He's the co-founder of Small World News, an independent news organisation that formed in 2006. With a small team, Brian Conley has trained citizens to be journalists in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Mexico. He started working with Libyans back in March and is now planning a nationwide project to train the country's enthusiastic new breed of reporters.


He spoke to Jess Hill from his home in Portland, Oregon.


Interview transcript:
http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2011/s3314900.htm