Source:
ReutersBy Jessica Donati
TRIPOLI Oct 23 (Reuters) - Some 200 independent publications have sprung up in Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, and newsagents say clients leave their shops with armfuls of papers to ensure they do not miss any news.
..
Idris Al-Musmari, who only recently emerged from a second term in jail after serving 10 years in the 1980s for his political activities, is heading a special committee formed by the National Transitional Council (NTC) to promote and support a free press.
Under an NTC proposal, the government pays the printing costs of the first three editions of any new publication and offer discounted printing services thereafter. Money from Gaddafi's state-run media body is being used to cover the expense.
...
Even the most critical publications have steered clear of incitement seen in social media networks and in graffiti in certain areas of town, he added.
Read more:
http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7LL12C20111023
Everytime money is involved in those operations, I have to think of this story...
U.S. Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers
By JEFF GERTH and SCOTT SHANE
Published: December 1, 2005
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - Titled "The Sands Are Blowing Toward a Democratic Iraq," an article written this week for publication in the Iraqi press was scornful of outsiders' pessimism about the country's future.
"Western press and frequently those self-styled 'objective' observers of Iraq are often critics of how we, the people of Iraq, are proceeding down the path in determining what is best for our nation," the article began. Quoting the Prophet Muhammad, it pleaded for unity and nonviolence.
But far from being the heartfelt opinion of an Iraqi writer, as its language implied, the article was prepared by the United States military as part of a multimillion-dollar covert campaign to plant paid propaganda in the Iraqi news media and pay friendly Iraqi journalists monthly stipends, military contractors and officials said.
The article was one of several in a storyboard, the military's term for a list of articles, that was delivered Tuesday to the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations firm paid by the Pentagon, documents from the Pentagon show. The contractor's job is to translate the articles into Arabic and submit them to Iraqi newspapers or advertising agencies without revealing the Pentagon's role. Documents show that the intended target of the article on a democratic Iraq was Azzaman, a leading independent newspaper, but it is not known whether it was published there or anywhere else.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/politics/01propaganda.html?pagewanted=all 
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