Now there are hoards [sic] of international news teams camped out with rebel forces or reporting from the country's capital and Gaddafi stronghold, Tripoli.
[2] The Libyan government authorized non-governmental media in 2007, leading to the launch of newspapers and a satellite TV service by a company affiliated with one of Colonel Gaddafi's sons.
Given the broad nature of these prohibitions and the harsh penalties attached, Libyan journalists practiced a considerable degree of self-censorship.
The TV aired live coverage of a speech by Gaddafi from the evening before, in which he denounced both the United States and their "Zionist" allies in front of a cheering crowd.
The stations carried by Nilesat included U.S.-based Al-Hurra, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, and UAE-based Al-Arabiya, which had been providing live coverage of the recent events and interviewing residents by telephone.
It was created in late March 2011 by the National Transitional Council, after the NTC media minister, Mahmum Shammam, recruited a small group of volunteers via Facebook.
Libya TV admits to being a propaganda tool in the effort to dislodge the country's long-time leader, but show hosts have welcomed pro-Gaddafi loyalists to call in and air their views.
NATO said it carried out the air strikes in order to silence the regime's "terror broadcasts" and put a stop to its "use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them.
"[13] Al Urubah, a pro-Gaddafi television station, broadcast messages from the deposed leader and his information minister, Moussa Ibrahim, following the fall of Tripoli in August 2011.
Quryna, which was previously part of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's Al-Ghad Media Corporation but is now state-owned, carried an upbeat report about order being restored in Benghazi.
[25][26] The opposition badly wanted to get its story out to the rest of the world and so, as soon as they acquired a territorial base in Benghazi, foreign reporters were able to join them.
Security agents blocked all attempts by reporters to leave the Rixos Al Nasr Hotel in the center of the capital, which housed 130 journalists invited by the government.
Threatening to arrest all those who went out without permission, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the presence of journalists on the street could provoke violence.
[7] On 11 March Brazilian reporter Andrei Netto of the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper was released by pro-Gaddafi forces after being held for eight days.
Netto, who is normally based in Paris, was arrested by pro-Gaddafi forces at the Tunisian-Libyan border as he was trying to resolve problems regarding the way he had entered the country.
[28] CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson and his crew were detained on 11 March in Tajura, east of Tripoli, by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
[29] Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Ali Hassan al-Jaber, a cameraman working for the Qatar-based satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, on 12 March in an ambush on the outskirts of the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Al-Jazeera said Al Jaber was returning to Benghazi after reporting in a nearby town when the gunmen opened fire on his car, killing him and another passenger.
[30] Wadah Khanfar, the director-general of Al Jazeera, said that the killing came after "an unprecedented campaign" against the network by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
[37][38][39] On 24 August, four Italian journalists were kidnapped by Gaddafi loyalists on the road to Zawiya, about 40 km west of Tripoli and were taken to an apartment in the capital.
Russian journalist Orkhan Djamal, of the daily Izvestia, sustained a non-life-threatening leg-injury during fighting in Tripoli on 22 August.
Shrapnel from an exploding shell seriously injured the French freelance photographer Olivier Sarbil in the face, arms and legs during fighting between pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces on 17 September in Sirte.
[41] On 1 February 2011 state security police arrested the writer and political commentator Jamal al-Hajji, who had used the Internet to call for peaceful protests in Libya.
[42] At the start of the uprising on 16 February, state security police arrested the director of local news-site Irasa, Taqi Al-Din Al-Chalawi, and its editor, Abdel Fattah Bourwaq.
While state media showed only pro-Gaddafi protests, pictures and video from mobile phones that made their way from Libya onto Facebook pages told a different story.
[17] When Facebook and Twitter were blocked inside the country, users managed to circumvent restrictions by using satellite connections, proxy servers, and other means.
[54] Early in the revolt some activists crossed into Egypt to post online videos and photos taken with mobile phones or tweeted news about events in the country.
The hacker group Anonymous provided Libyans with tools to get round the censorship and some of its members reportedly managed to set up parallel networks.