TRIPOLI — Libyan authorities were keeping a tight leash on foreign journalists in Tripoli Friday, banning them from leaving their hotel unaccompanied, threatening arrest and cutting off internet access.
Restrictions intensified ahead of the weekly Muslim prayers, which have become in Libya a springboard for anti-regime protests, demanding the ouster of MoamMar Khadafy.
The doors of the Rixos hotel, where the majority of foreign correspondents are staying, were shut. The journalists were only allowed to leave once, on an organized tour escorted by officials.
Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, issued a stark warning to the press.
FIGHTING RAGES ACROSS LIBYA AS PROTESTS FLARE IN TRIPOLI
“Any journalist out on the streets without permission will be arrested. It’s a special day. Terrorist elements are seeking to provoke violence and the presence of the media can only make matters worse,” he told Western reporters.
An AFP reporter, however, managed to reach Tripoli’s landmark Green Square, where hundreds staged a pro-Khadafy demonstration shouting slogans in support the “Guide of the Revolution.”
Fifteen policemen promptly led the correspondent to a taxi, ordering the driver to take him to the hotel immediately, without detours.
Witnesses later said demonstrators and protesters came to blows near the square, the main stronghold of Khadafy loyalists in the capital.
Another witness said police had fired tear gas at protesters in Tripoli’s eastern Tajoura neighborhood after Friday prayers.
But even before Friday, sidestepping surveillance proved a tricky task, as government officials took charge of journalists from the moment they arrived at the airport.
From Thursday, the internet was disconnected in the two hotels designated to host foreign correspondents.
“It is not our fault. There’s been outside intervention,” said an employee of the Corinthia hotel.
Since protests erupted on February 15, Libyan authorities have regularly accused international media of exaggerating the extent of the violence and for portraying Khadafy in a negative light.