Following the outbreak of widespread fighting in July 2014, the media environment in Libya has fundamentally changed; Libyan journalists are now more likely to correspond with each other from cafes in Amman, Istanbul, Cairo and Tunis, not from Tripoli and Benghazi. The country is embroiled in a dangerous power struggle that has deepened the political, social, economic and geographic rifts noted by this report, and risks complete collapse should the UN-led dialogue process not take hold.
This report provides the essential background to understand why crimes against media professionals are committed with impunity, and perhaps more worryingly, where the media itself plays an active role in the conflict.