Channels of the former Libyan regime return to broadcasting during the month of Ramadan

Channels exploit archives of drama, songs, variety, Gaddafi’s speeches, and national anthems.

Al-Arab London – A number of television channels loyal to the former regime announced their return to the media scene to compete to attract viewers inside and outside Libya.

The return of these channels will coincide with the beginning of the month of Ramadan, which usually witnesses an increase in viewership, especially among families and in the interior regions of the country.

The “Libya Channel” logo appeared on the Egyptian satellite “Nilesat” with the same logo with which it was known since the launch of its official broadcast for the first time as one of the most prominent media arms of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s “Libya of Tomorrow” project.

The channel began broadcasting on August 15, 2007 under the management of Al-Ghad Media Services Company, then stopped broadcasting, but resumed transmission on August 15, 2008 by presenting a number of programs, including “Pencil” programs by the late Egyptian journalist Hamdi Kandil.

The channel continued to broadcast its programs until it was nationalized by a personal decision from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and was included in the General Authority for Great Jamahiriya Broadcasting in May 2009. Its name was later changed to “Jamahiriya 2” channel, but after the outbreak of the events of February 2011, it returned to broadcasting with its first logo from its headquarters in Tripoli. It was subject to continuous interference by specialized international devices until its transmission was completely cut off in August of that year.

In a first attempt, some supporters of the popular regime tried in September 2013 to relaunch the channel, but the experience did not last long. It is expected that the new experience will be more extensive and important for several considerations, including launching the path of national reconciliation, and the efforts made to resolve the political crisis and setting a date for the presidential and parliamentary elections that the supporters seek. The previous regime fought it forcefully.

The return of the former regime’s channels comes in the context of competition between political movements in the country, most notably Tripoli and Benghazi

The second channel that will return to broadcasting is the “Jamahiriya” channel, which expresses the point of view of the former regime, and it works through the personal efforts of its supervisors, who in early 2012 launched the “Green” channel, before it later adopted the official name and symbol of the government channel that was at the forefront of the media scene. In Libya before 2011.

“Al-Jamahiriya” faced many difficulties and stopped broadcasting on several occasions as a result of the debts imposed on it. However, it is very popular with a significant percentage of Libyans, especially the elderly and those who find on its screen important materials documenting the period of the rule of the previous regime, as it possesses a rich archive of drama. Songs, miscellaneous, Gaddafi’s speeches, national anthems, and others.

There is another channel that is re-broadcasting, which is “Al-Naja” and whose owner is the great lyric and popular poet Ali Al-Kilani, who was considered the most important cultural and media symbol of the popular system, and who founded 35 years ago a television experiment, which is the traditional program “Al-Naja” or “Omar’s Companions,” which the Libyans used to accompany them. On iftar tables during the entire holy month of Ramadan.

Before the year 2011, the program was interested in customs, traditions, sayings, collectibles, etc., and working to revive them in popular memory by choosing a topic for each episode that was covered with verbal material, then with a song by a prominent voice such as Zakira, Muhammad Hassan, Saif Al-Nasr, Nabiha Crowley, Asmaa Al-Munawar, Ashraf Mahfouz, Maryam Al-Saafi, Ramadan Kazouz and others, and after he left Libya and resided. In Egypt, Al-Kilani sought to resume production of the program and broadcast it on the “Jamahiriya” screen. Then, after it stopped broadcasting, he went to launch a private channel bearing the name of the program, which over the past years has become specialized in reminding viewers of the period of Gaddafi’s rule, focusing on social values, valuing the role of tribes, and preaching the return of the Jamahiriya regime.

The media movement in Libya had emerged from the old guise to begin a new era. After the fall of Gaddafi’s regime, dozens of Libyan media professionals entered the television work market, and the media movement became active at the hands of ambitious local journalists.

It began in late 2011 with the launch of channels for the new state on the ruins of the previous regime’s media system, which was represented by the “General Authority for Broadcasting of the Great Jamahiriya” and the “Secretariat of the General People’s Committee for Culture and Information.” Businessmen participated for the first time in financing private channels.

However, practicing the profession encountered many obstacles, especially in Tripoli, where it came to the point of bombing the headquarters of some channels that the militias did not like with missiles, kidnapping their workers, and other measures that prompted many channels to move to work from abroad.

Observers believe that the return of the former regime’s channels comes in the context of competition between the multiple political currents in the country, especially between the two most prominent poles, which are the pole supporting the National Unity Government headed by Abdul Hamid Dabaiba in Tripoli and Istanbul, and the pole loyal to the General Command of the National Army in Benghazi, and each of them seeks to expand its popular base. In preparation for the possibility of reaching an agreement on organizing the long-awaited elections.