A controversial Libyan satellite channel is relocating from Libya and will soon begin broadcasting from London.
According to news reports, the Al-Ghad company, which is affiliated with Seif Al-Islam Al-Qadhafi, son of Libyan leader Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi, and which owns the A-Libya satellite channel, decided to transfer the headquarters of A-Libya outside the country and will enter a partnership with a foreign investor.
The company said this was done in order to get benefits from a foreign investor that will help develop the channel.
However, news reports suggest the relocation was driven by political reasons.
According to the London-based Al-Quds Al-‘Arabi, the manager of the channel was arrested two days ago for broadcasting reports that Cairo said smeared Egypt’s domestic policies. The manager, ‘Abd A-Salam Al-Mashri was released on Wednesday and was said to be in good health.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi personally and asked him to stop the broadcast of one of the programs which he said tarnished Egypt, the paper reported.
Sources close to Seif Al-Islam said the channel received clear threats from Egyptians, saying that if the channel did not stop what it viewed as a campaign against Egypt, Cairo would see this as a green light for Egyptian satellite channels to air programs personally attacking the flamboyant Libyan leader in the name of free speech, Al-Quds Al-‘Arabi reported.
Egypt claims the channel took the side of Hizbullah and its supporters in its reportage of the recent arrest of dozens of Hizbullah members in Egypt.
Governmental sources and journalists told the Quds Press news agency that A-Libya also angered Libyan authorities, when it gave a platform to critics of the government who accused Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi’s henchmen of torturing opposition members and killing people over the past three decades.
On Monday, the government took control of the channel and placed it under management of the Republic’s Broadcasting Organization, without giving a reason.
The channel could start airing from London within the next three months, when it organizes the required logistic and administrative arrangements.
The newspaper said the most controversial program on the station, Qalam Ra’sa’s, would continue to be aired from London.
Although the decision to relocate the channel to London could be construed as an act of defiance, to prove to the Libyan regime that it would not tolerate being stifled, critics say the measure is nothing more than a way to appease the Egyptians.
Hafed Al-Ghwell, a critic of the Libyan regime, said the station was far from being independent, as it was sometimes described.
“If they want to claim credibility they have to be more open about their financial backers and have to show where people like Seif Al-Islam got that money from in the first place,” he told The Media Line.
If the station operates from London it allows the regime to distance itself from the channel, under the pretext that the channel is not subject to Libyan laws, Al-Ghwell said.
“It’s simply for legal and technical reasons, but it doesn’t change the basic argument that these are controlled entities that don’t enjoy independence of any kind,” he said.