Reply #52: Talking to the free press in Libya

[pinboy3niner]

Source: Al Jazeera

By Sue Turton in Africa
on Thu, 07/07/2011 - 13:48.


Farooq, our Libyan fixer, turned up at the Al Jazeera house here a couple of nights ago and asked me to do him a favour. Would I give a talk to a bunch of budding young Libyan journalists about journalism and, in particular, about how to handle press conferences?


We had been at a 'presser' the night before and I had pushed the Council's Military Head to tell us that he was talking to France about a possible weapons' air drop to Misrata. They wanted to know how to get the best out of these media rituals.


I expected a handful of journalists to turn up. But as we walked into the lecture hall there must have been over one hundred people waiting patiently for a proper lecture.


For me this was a real privilege - talking to journalists who were getting their first taste of working in a society with a free press, their first chance to challenge people in authority or to demand answers on behalf of their fellow Libyans. And even more exciting were the rows of young women sitting in the audience.

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http://blogs.aljazeera.net/africa/2011/07/07/talking-free-press-libya