The enforced silence of Libyan journalists is killing democracy, said the Libyan Centre for the Defence of Journalism (HESN) in its 2014 Annual Report released on Thursday.
HESN said that there has been a ’’big reversal in freedoms’’ in Libya and that 2014 was the most violent and bloody year with regards to the safety of journalists in Libya.
The report said that there had been no fewer than 10 recorded deaths, 100 kidnappings and torture by militias in Libya in 2014. Moreover, there were numerous cases of beatings, attacks on media sites and homes, family members of journalists as well as journalists being forced out of their places of work.
HESN said that it considered these acts of terror against members of the media contrary to the ideals of the 17 February revolution and its principles of freedom, free expression, democracy and development and progress as enshrined within the 2011 Constitutional Declaration as well as international conventions of human rights and freedoms of expression.
It called on the Libyan authorities to take actions to reverse this trend.
By Libya Herald staff.
