One Libyan Battle Is Fought in Social and News Media

By EMAD MEKAY Published: February 23, 2011

CAIRO While Al-Jamahiriya, the Libyan state-owned television channel, was broadcasting nonstop patriotic songs, poetry recitations and rowdy rallies supporting the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qadda, on Tuesday, Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel based in Doha, was showing images of angry Libyan demonstrators throwing shoes at a giant street screen carrying live pictures of Colonel Qaddas speech. The contrast highlighted a erce battle between Colonel Qaddas supporters, who were using the state-run news media, and Libyan protesters, who were turning to social media and the foreign news media, to win over hearts and minds, inside and outside Libya. This tug-of-war has been going on since a public uprising started on Feb. 17 calling for Colonel Qaddas ouster. His rivals have clearly made a global impression through multiple amateur video Web posts, visceral pictures, twitter posts and dozens of heartfelt interviews on Arab television stations telling stories of a ruthless repression unleashed by troops loyal to Colonel Qadda. But the Libyan leader, who has ruled this tribal society unopposed since 1969, has demonstrated that he will not easily be outmaneuvered. His television channels appealed on Tuesday for amateur images showing support from his base and beseeched viewers to place them online, too. Government channels have run a written appeal: For the dear brothers whose hobby is photography and video taping, please put up videos online that show the massive support for our beloved leader. In Colonel Qaddas all-out media counteroffensive, a sports channel and a music channel that are popular among the young have instead been showing 24-hour programs of poetry reciters eulogizing his achievements and lms of pro-government rallies waving his pictures. Al-Jamahiriya 2, another government channel, has been broadcasting patriotic songs describing Colonel Qadda as father of the nation and interviews with Libyans thanking him for all he has done for the country over the four decades of his rule. Colonel Qadda has taken his media critics head-on. Minutes after Al Jazeera broadcast the shoe-throwing scenes, state-run Libyan television showed images of chanting crowds insulting Al Jazeera. Oh you dirty lying Jazeera, we want none other than our leader, shouted crowds of several hundreds in what Al-Jamahiriya said was the central Green Square in Tripoli.

In a bold-font subtitle that lled half the screen, and referring to another Arabic-language television station, Al-Jamahiriya asked, Why doesnt Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya show the thunderous voice of the Libyan people who support the leader of the revolution? Pro-Qadda ofcials and analysts have been appearing on state television shows calling for calm and opening a dialogue. They have reminded viewers that the Qadda government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on making life better through investments in infrastructure, roads, schools and universities. At the same time, taking their cue from Colonel Qaddas speech, in which he called the protesters rats and mice, they dismissed his critics as dogs and criminals. But some people associated with the Libyan news media say that after 41-years of Colonel Qaddas rule, the public has grown so used to ofcial propaganda that no matter the scale of the new campaign, Libyans are unlikely to be much impressed. Years of marketing Colonel Qadda using similar tactics made most of the ofcial media carry little credibility, said Khaled Mahmoud, who was previously bureau chief in Cairo for Jana, the ofcial Libyan news agency, and a correspondent for Libyan state television. Those are heavily controlled media outlets, Mr. Mahmoud said. Thats why you see them taking pictures only in limited areas. Youll never see the Libyan TV cameras stepping outside afuent areas or touring the real side streets of Tripoli. Ofcial Libyan news media reactions to seven days of protests echoed those of Tunisia and Egypt in their rst few days of demonstrations, when state-run channels attacked the foreign news media and belittled pro-democracy protesters as kids, saboteurs and foreign-funded agents. At one point during the Egyptian protests, state-run television and private channels owned by backers of President Hosni Mubarak broadcast reports that pro-democracy leaders had been handpicked by Israel and trained in the United States and Qatar to destabilize Egypt. The report was later found to have been planted by Mr. Mubaraks state security police. The Qadda government has similarly painted the revolt as a foreign plot to destabilize the country. Jana reported this week that the Libyan government was ghting an Israeli inspired scheme to create anarchy. The report asserted that Israel was nancing separation forces in the Arab region and that there were no genuine popular grievances behind the protests. Al Shams, a newspaper controlled by an arm of the Libyan Information Ministry, reported on its Web site that the government had exposed foreign network elements in several Libyan cities. Mr. Mahmoud, now an analyst on Libyan affairs, said opposition news media outlets were based mainly in Europe and a few other Arab countries, with no presence in Libya. The main ways for the protesters to communicate with the outside world, he said, remain the online social media and pan-Arab channels like Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, the BBC Arabic service and Al Hurra, which is nanced by the United States. One of the most popular sites for the protesters has become libyaFeb17.com, which congregates twitter posts and helps to galvanize Colonel Qaddas scattered opponents abroad

in English and Arabic. Protesters have posted videos to the site, lmed on mobile phones, showing the violent crackdown in several Libyan towns. Other sites include Almanara and Libya Alyoum, based in London. These have carried statements and reports from Libya and are widely credited with spurring support for the protests among Libyans abroad, especially in the United States and Europe. Among their most powerful weapons have been crudely lmed videos and images of civilian deaths and injuries. The amateurish quality of these has given them an added psychological strength and impact in contradicting the clean and professional pictures on Libyan television. Whichever side wins this media battle will probably be well on the way to ruling the country.