TRIPOLI: Libya's new rulers are trying to turn around the state-controlled media that prevailed under the regime of strongman Moamer Qadhafi into a credible vehicle to spread the news.
"Work must resume at the television and we must publish a daily newspaper, the "February 17" in Tripoli," National Transitional Council spokesman Mahmud Shammam said.
Shammam urged employees of the Qadhafi-controlled media to resume their work.
The task of publishing the news and getting it right will undoubtedly be a huge challenge for the NTC as it consolidates its authority across Libya where rumours and contradictory information abound.
During the more than six-month conflict with Qadhafi's forces, the NTC set up a television channel -- Libya al-Ahrar (Free Libya) -- broadcasts from the Qatari capital Doha with the help of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel.
But there is a clear gap between what happens on the ground in Libya and the network's Doha-based editorial board.
In a bid to get the NTC's message across, Shammam organises a daily news conference but the officials who speak have little to say and few reporters now attend the briefings.
The fugitive Qadhafi still manages to get his message out but since the fall of Tripoli to the rebels last month he has been forced to rely on foreign media, notably the Damascus-based Arabic satellite channel Al-Rai.
"Even if you cannot hear my voice, continue the resistance," Qadhafi said in an audio message to his remaining loyalists on Thursday.
"We will not surrender. We are not women and we are going to keep on fighting," he added in the message recorded to mark the 42nd anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought him to power.
A few newspapers can still be found in Tripoli but they offer little information to a population whose primary concerns since Qadhafi's overthrow are bread and butter issues like the power and water shortages plaguing the capital.
A self-styled independent tabloid called "Aruss al-Bahr" (The Mermaid) hit the newsstands on Wednesday, August 31.
The first edition provided readers with commentaries on the "fall of the tyrant" and a collage of pictures, including one showing Qadhafi with a shaved head bearing the caption: "Wanted dead or alive."
Another publication, called Sawt al-Assima or Voice of the Capital, is little more than a newsletter.
Its undated fourth edition gave anti-Qadhafi forces a series of recommendations -- including a call to be good Muslims and perform the five daily prayers.
Forces loyal to Libya's new rulers are urged to be firm but polite in manning the new checkpoints that have been erected across Tripoli. "Smile and relax for easy interaction," the paper urges.
In the old Libya, Qadhafi banned the publication of independent newspapers and the state held a legal monopoly on all broadcast media.
The ousted strongman even shut down the newspapers run by his son and heir-apparent Seif al-Islam -- the only ones published outside state control -- when they fell foul of conservatives within the regime.
One newspaper from the old Libya is seeking to make a comeback. Saeed Laswad, who published the Tripoli Post from Malta -- the only English-language paper tolerated by the Qadhafi regime -- has plans to relaunch it from the Libyan capital.
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