Reply #12: "Libya Dispatch: The Cage (2)"

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"Libya Dispatch: The Cage (2)"
By Abu Ray July 19, 2011 at 2:53 PM

The billboard in the lobby shows a smiling child waving pictures of other cute smiling children, topped by the slogan, "Stop the Bleeding!" Bleeding? What bleeding? What now?

Welcome to the Rixos Hotel, Tripoli's finest and a gleaming, inlaid marble cage for Western journalists.

I'd heard a lot about this place over the last five months, about being trapped inside, about the mind games and the midnight summons, the hallways prowled by semi-feral minders and the press conferences by the smooth-tongued Moussa Ibrahim.
...

Independent trips out are strongly discouraged. In the early days, a number of intrepid journalists made it out, grabbed taxis and wandered the city unaccompanied, inevitably finding pockets of anti-Qadhafi resistance and writing intriguing articles about the unknown and seldom seen parts of the capital.

Then they get kicked out.

more... http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/7/19/libya-dispatch-the-cage-2.html

We've watched this cycle repeated so many times - a seasoned reporter gets kicked out, soon to be replaced by one that is young and "green". They seem to be overwhelmed and easy parrot the Gadaffi/stateTV line, until they don't, and then are kicked out. We should have kept a list. Abu Ray is independent-minded exception -and a great writer.