Gaddafi son says Libya lacks free press

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, said on Sunday the north African country lacked a free press and its political system was not as democratic as he would like. His comments, in a two-hour speech to 15,000 youth activists in the town of Sirte, were among the most critical expressed by Islam, who has emerged as his father’s most trusted representative although he holds no government position. Speaking to loud cheers, Islam criticised an array of alleged ills in Libyan public life, from the greed of ‘fat cats’ in state institutions to the poor state of the health and education sectors, and called for a range of reforms. ‘Our real situation, speaking frankly, is that we have no free press,’ he said, referring to the country’s media, all of which are state owned. (Reuters via International Journalists Network,August 24, 2006)

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