dagblog - Comments for "Gaddafi forces beat up BBC team, subject them to mock executions"

Ghaith has finally been

artappraiser — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 02:16:46 +0000

In reply to oops, there's an update to

Ghaith has finally been releases:

Guardian journalist freed from captivity in Libya

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was held after crossing into country from Tunisia to cover the uprising against the Tripoli regime

By Sam Jones, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 March 2011 17.52 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/16/guardian-journalist-freed-ca...

Yemen expels four foreign

artappraiser — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:12:14 +0000

In reply to Gaddafi forces beat up BBC team, subject them to mock executions

Yemen expels four foreign journalists amid fears of clampdown
Two British and two American journalists were taken from their house in Sana'a shortly after dawn and told to leave Yemen
By Tom Finn and WL Webb in Sana'a, guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 March 2011 19.45 GMT

....The four, all young freelancers for American newspapers, included two US citizens – Haley Sweetland Edwards, who writes for the Los Angeles Times, and Joshua Maricich, a photographer – and two Britons – Portia Walker, who writes for the Washington Post, and Oliver Holmes, who writes for the Wall Street Journal and Time magazine.

Speaking from Sana'a airport, Holmes, 24, said he had not been given an explanation for the deportation but suspected it was because of their recent reporting of the attacks on protesters.

With only a handful of foreign journalists remaining in the country, analysts are worried the regime may be planning a severe crackdown on protesters....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/14/yemen-expels-four-foreign-jo...

Ghaith is still in Libyan

artappraiser — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:34:19 +0000

In reply to oops, there's an update to

Ghaith is still in Libyan custody while Brazilian Netto was released:

Efforts continue to free Guardian reporter

Amnesty International has added to the calls for the Libyan authorities to release Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
By Ian Black, Guardian.co.uk, March 13, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/guardian-reporter-libya-prison

The Guardian's Libya live blog said that that story is still current as of March 14 11:06 am.

Al Jazeera cameraman

artappraiser — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:25:14 +0000

In reply to Gaddafi forces beat up BBC team, subject them to mock executions

Al Jazeera cameraman assassinated in Libya
Cameraman Ali Hassan Al Jaber was returning to eastern city of Benghazi from filing report when he was shot and killed.
Al Jazeera, March 12, 2011
Photo caption: Here and now, Libyan and Qatari blood is mixed for the sake of freedom. Our condolences go to the Qatari people and the Al Jazeera channel' read a banner held in Benghazi
.....'Cowardly crime'

Wadah Khanfar, the director-general of Al Jazeera, said the network "will not remain silent" and will pursue those behind the ambush through legal channels.

He said that the killing came after "an unprecedented campaign" against the network by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
ake of Al Jaber's killing

"Al Jazeera condemns the cowardly crime, which comes as part of the Libyan regime's malicious campaign targeting Al Jazeera and its staff," the network said in a statement.....

Incredible video of spontaneous mass demonstration in support of Al Jazeera on realizing the news--warning, it's a tearjerker:

Libyan crowd mourns Al Jazeera camerama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JG0cr0nACg&feature=player_embedded

Also ses:

Al-Jazeera cameraman chased and shot dead by Gaddafi regime supporters
Arabic station says cameraman was shot dead in ambush near Benghazi after reporting on Libya protests
By Matt Wells in Doha, Qatar, Guardian.co.uk, March 14
Arabic station says cameraman was shot dead in ambush near Benghazi after reporting on Libya protests
An al-Jazeera cameraman who died in eastern Libya was hunted down and ambushed by forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, according to sources at the broadcaster.

Ali Hassan al-Jaber was among a team from the network's Arabic station attacked as they returned to the rebel-held city of Benghazi on Saturday.

In an official statement, al-Jazeera said the group were ambushed, and it condemned "the cowardly crime, which comes as part of the Libyan regime's malicious campaign targeting al-Jazeera and its staff".

It said the group had been returning from a nearby town after reporting on an opposition protest. Sources at al-Jazeera told the Guardian that Gaddafi loyalists followed the journalists from the protest scene and sprayed their vehicle with bullets. Al-Jazeera discounted earlier reports that they were lured to an interview under false pretences.

Jaber, a Qatari national, was rushed to hospital but died from his injuries. Another al-Jazeera journalist was wounded.

Gaddafi has blamed al-Jazeera, which has won plaudits for its reporting of the Middle East and north African uprisings, for the bloodshed in Libya.....

oops, there's an update to

artappraiser — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 05:29:21 +0000

In reply to Iraqi reporter/photog Ghaith

oops, there's an update to the above on Ghaith I missed--Libyan officials admit he's in custody, that they are holding him along with a Brazilian journalist Andrei Netto:

Guardian journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in custody, Libya officials confirm

Correspondent went missing with Brazilian journalist Andrei Netto while reporting from country

Ian Black, Middle East editor and Peter Beaumont in Tripoli, guardian.co.uk, 10 March 2011 18.53 GMT
Libyan government officials have confirmed that Guardian correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is in their custody after he went missing while reporting from the country.
The foreign ministry in the capital Tripoli said that Libyan authorities were holding Abdul-Ahad along with a Brazilian journalist, Andrei Netto. The two are believed to have been detained close to the coastal town of Sabratha on Monday.....

Ghaith Abul-Ahad:

Iraqi reporter/photog Ghaith

artappraiser — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:24:23 +0000

In reply to Gaddafi forces beat up BBC team, subject them to mock executions

Iraqi reporter/photog Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is missing in Libya, last head from near Zawiya.

If the name sounds only vaguely familiar, it might be because he was one of Salam Pax's friends written about on his "Where is Raed?" blog. It would be terrible to learn his past luck at surviving danger has run out:

Guardian correspondent missing in Libya
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was last heard from on outskirts of Zawiya
Ian Black, Middle East editor, Guardian. co.uk, March 10, 2011
Urgent efforts are under way to establish the whereabouts of the Guardian correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who has been reporting from western Libya for the past two weeks.
Abdul-Ahad entered the country from Tunisia and was last in touch with the paper through a third party on Sunday, when he was on the outskirts of Zawiya, a town west of the capital, Tripoli,which has seen fierce fighting in the past few days.
The Guardian has been in contact with Libyan government officials in Tripoli and London and asked them to urgently give all assistance in the search for Abdul-Ahad and to establish if he is in the custody of the authorities.
Abdul-Ahad, who is an Iraqi national, is a highly respected staff correspondent who has written for the Guardian since 2004. He has spent long periods in Somalia, Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan, reporting on the stories of ordinary people and their suffering in times of conflict.....

Report of more rough

artappraiser — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:13:29 +0000

In reply to Gaddafi forces beat up BBC team, subject them to mock executions

Report of more rough treatment of journalists by police, then "rescue" by higher-ups to take them to see a pitiful Potemkin show at Zawiya, from Nic Robertson/CNN twitter feed, he says Zawiya has its "soul ripped out, spirit shattered" (note chronological order is from bottom up-don't know how to get rid of the numbering):

Thanks to @acarvin and all expressing concern: Tommy Evans, Khalil Abdallah & I are fine, but it's a reminder of limits put on our reporting less than a minute ago via web
As journalists' convoy is leaving Zawiya, we see a new army moving in: clean up crews in orange overalls. #Libya 6 minutes ago via web
Buildings in #Zawiya blown apart by heavy tank fire, burnt cars, gun shell casings litter streets, trees torn apart like WWI. Devastation. 8 minutes ago via web
In #Zawiya, soldier fire guns in celebration but shots of victory ring hollow amid this massive destruction. #Libya 9 minutes ago via web
Govt managd to produce abt 100 supporters to stage demo in Zawiya, surrounded by hastily covered-over destruction --fresh paint, empty pots 11 minutes ago via web
Later today, govt took journalists in convoy to Zawiya --city had its soul ripped out, spirit shatterd, hard to imagine it will ever b same. 19 minutes ago via web
After aggressive questioning and threats, some higher power instructd them to free & return us to hotel. Same thing happnd to othr journlsts 21 minutes ago via web
Police thugs pushed around shooter Khalil Abdallah & me and kicked producer Tommy Evans, shouting at us & berating us the whole time 23 minutes ago via web
Detaind at gunpt this morn by plainclothes thugs to stop us covering Friday prayrs in #Tripoli nghbrhd where police attackd protstrs last wk 25 minutes ago via web

In the "in their own words"

artappraiser — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 07:44:02 +0000

In reply to Gaddafi forces beat up BBC team, subject them to mock executions

In the "in their own words" link, I'd like to point out this especially surprising passage. The reporters were Feras Killani, a Palestinian refugee with a Syrian passport; Goktay Koraltan, who is Turkish; and Chris Cobb-Smith, British.

"We were there about another 30 minutes and then a bad guy arrived. He had three stars on this shoulder, a captain."

Goktay: "He looked pissed off. He was a tall guy, aggressive as he came into the room."

Chris: "It was almost like good cop, bad cop. The good one left and then the other one stormed in."

Feras: "He asked a few questions in a very bad way, in Arabic. He was aggressive. I tried to explain we had only been in Zawiya a week before with the authorities.

"He said something bad about Palestinians, a lot of bad things, and he asked his team what they thought about Palestinians and they said the same things. He thought they had helped the Palestinians a lot, but Hamas has given a very bad reaction to Gaddafi. Lots of bad language.

"When I tried to respond he took me out to the car park behind the guard room. Then he started hitting me without saying anything. First with his fist, then boots, then knees. Then he found a plastic pipe on the ground and beat me with that. Then one of the soldiers gave him a long stick. I'm standing trying to protect myself, I'm trying to tell him we're working, I'm a Palestinian, I have a good impression of the country. He knew who we were [ie journalists] and what we were doing.

"I think there was something personal against me. They knew me and the sort of coverage I had been doing, especially from Tajoura the Friday before. I think they monitored the BBC and had an idea, not just the reports but also DTLs [interviews from the studio with a correspondent in the field]. They don't like us or Al-Arabiya or Al-Jazeera."

"He told me to return to the room and not to tell the other guys anything.

Feras mentions the prejudice against Palestinians again, later in the text.