(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 28 - The Western media have almost
ignored Libya in the past months ''because they have forgotten
about it, but we have continued to work every day." So says
Abudaya Abdulbaset Ahmed, director of the new Lybian News Agency
(LANA), which replaced JANA (Jamahiriya News Agency) after the
fall of Muammar Gaddafi in October last year.
In fact the new press agency takes the name of the one founded
in 1964, when the country became the Kingdom of Libya. But the
name was changed into JANA by King Idris in 1969 at the start of
the Gaddafi era. The 1964 agency was based on professional
journalism, Abudaya underlines, where JANA ''was a propaganda
tool for the old regime."
''In October 2011 we took control of the agency again to turn it
into an instrument for professionals,'' Abudaya continues,
talking with ANSAmed on the sidelines of the general assembly of
Alliance of Mediterranean press agencies (Aman), which came to a
conclusion today in Rome. ''We have reporters in the entire
country,'' the director of LANA added, ''but we are expanding
our coverage." The real problem, however, is training
journalists, ''both for the written press and the multimedia."
Therefore the foundations were laid these days for an agreement
with ANSA on a project in this direction, which should start
''as soon as possible."
Focusing on the press in the new Libya, in these months ''many
new newspapers were launched, and old ones have started printing
again." But the propaganda instruments of the old regime have
been closed, including those supported by his son, the former
reformist Saif Al Islam. (ANSAmed).
