Introduction

The Continued Struggle for Power

After the 2011 Libyan Civil War, mentioned in a previous post, the country has continued to struggle in finding proper government stability.

Although anti-authoritarian protests and movements brought down Gaddafi as leader in 2011, a strong and democratic government has yet to take place in Libya. After the civil war, a transitional government took charge and faced the challenge of imposing order, disbanding the former rebel forces, rebuilding the economy, creating functioning institutions and managing the pledged transition to democracy and the rule of law in Libya.

While the country still had its transitional government, Libyan citizens voted in July 2012 for a General National Congress. The elections were the country’s first free national election in six decades. The congress appointed a prime minister, Ali Zeidan, in October, who formed an interim government tasked with preparing the ground for a new constitution and new parliamentary elections. Many citizens were looking forward to the country’s new constitution, because it would grantee them freedoms and rights that were not previously ensured. Also, this was the first time in decades that they had the right to choose a leader and feel as though their voice was being heard.

Though Libya seemed to have had the recipe for a successful government formation, tensions between the country’s nationalists and Islamist have depleted any current attempts to produce a stable government, and in 2014, the country was invaded by fighting between the rival militias.

Due to the fighting, the current (temporary) government in Libya was collapsed and the United Nations has struggled to bring political factions together, trying to create a peaceful environment were a new government could thrive.

In finding proper government, Libya citizens can enjoy the benefits of a free democracy and freedoms of speech, including media access and usage.

Is it a shame that a proper government in Libya could not form after citizens fought so hard in the Libyan Civil War? What do you think? Tell us in a comment below!

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13754897

Hopes of Strengthening Economic Relations

Morocco and Libya have been examining ways to strengthen their economic ties for quite some time. Together, the countries have been supportive of each other economically,  but Libyan and Moroccan government officials and economic analysts say there is always room for improvement.

In March 2014,  the government officials and analysts from both countries came together to discuss and evaluate their recent economic progress since 2011, when good trading and real estate investment began full-swing between the countries.

Since 2011, the trade between countries reached 900 million dirhams (almost 98.5 million U.S. dollars) and Libya’s direct investment in Moroccan real estate had spiked. Though those were signs of economic success, officials said that the numbers could have been even higher, believing that establishing concrete governments in both countries would create suitable economic conditions to promote more shared wealth between them.

Libyan businessman Mohamed Charaf agreed with government officials stating that there is a lot of unexplored potential between the two countries. He also advised that Libya and Morocco start economically partnering in sectors such as infrastructure, agribusiness and tourism.

In the past, general ties between Morocco and Libya have been present, especially after the formation of the Treaty of Oujda in the 1970s. The treaty tied Libya and Morocco together in many ways, including economically, against the other North African countries of Algeria, Tunisia, and Mauritania in a political divide that is still slightly present today.

Today, since the conference in 2011, both countries have been planning to keep expanding their economic horizons, building their relationships, and entering into new markets together. With the hopes of continuing their economic relationship, Morocco and Libya hope to enjoy the benefits in both their job markets and government profit.

With an increased job market, both countries may experience less poverty, leading to a more balanced system, higher education funding (leading to increased literacy rates) and more financial access to media systems.

source: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/features/2014/03/18/feature-03

A Background Leading to a Revolution

Libya had one of the most tightly controlled media usages in the Arab world, and was even considered one of the 10 most censored countries in the world before their civil war in 2011.

The history of Libya, a mostly desert and oil-rich country located on the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, contains traces of foreign control from Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as independent dictators, but in the 1960s, the history of independence in Libya began.

In 1969, a small group of military officers led by Officer Muammar Gaddafi staged a small revolution against King Idris, launching what is known today as the Libyan Revolution.  After gaining power, Gaddafi established the new “Jamahiriya” government structure that was officially referred to as a form of direct democracy, even though Gaddafi and his government refused to publish election results and acted more as a regime rather than a spokesperson for the people.

In February of 2011, efforts to organize opposition to the Gaddafi regime were marked for the first time. When protests first began in Libya, the media presence, both domestic and international, was scarce, but many stories of the war filtered out via social media thanks to courageous citizen journalists who risked their lives to educate the people of Libya.

By March a strong rebel group was formed and Gaddafi threatened to destroy the protest movement during several public appearances. Gaddafi forces eventually responded to the rebels militarily, creating a major civil war, known as the Libyan Revolution.

At least 30,000 Libyans died in the civil war, and on October 2011, Libya celebrated their liberation from Gaddafi’s rule.

After the fall of Gaddhafi, loyalists still continued to fight with the new rebel Libyan army, but the success of the revolution continued. In July 2012, Libyans voted in their first free parliamentary election in six decades, in which more than 100 political parties registered. During the election, a prime minister was named, and a committee was selected to draft a constitution.

Before the fall of Gaddafi, CNN journalist Ben Wedeman described Libya as a “black hole” for most journalists, where “they could do almost nothing.” After the country’s civil war, media usage and control is viewed as more lenient.

Though the country has moved towards the freedom of democracy since the ousting of Gaddafi, the country has struggled to form a stable government and complete media freedom.

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13754897

The 20 February Movement

Morocco, a country where the terrain is dominated by four main mountain ranges , has a wide variety of history, political reigns and revolution.

Starting in 1999, Moroccan King Hassan, who was crowned in 1961, died and his son, Mohammed VI came to power, promising to work on human-rights reforms, reforms that his father chose to ignore. The people of Morocco had high hopes for the new king, but were soon disappointed. Shortly after he took the throne, Mohammed VI addressed his country via television, promising to take on poverty, corruption and the job market. Soon after Mohammed VI came to power, he enacted the Instance Equite et Reconciliation, a reform to research and prevent human rights violations.

Although the incorporation of the reform was welcomed as a way to promote democracy, the reform didn’t do much, as a lot of abuses still exist in Morocco and the people of Morocco were disappointed that not much else was done to create equality and freedoms within the country.

To enforce these rights, Moroccan protests started in 2011 and were solely motivated by dissatisfaction with King Mohammed VI and thoughts of government corruption. In December 2011, the website Wikileaks published alleged high-level corrupted information involving the King. This encouraged many to get involved in the fight.

Moroccan protests were also encouraged by the uprisings and revolutions in other North African countries, such as Libya, and were propelled by social, economic issues. Some of these inequalities included the lack of civil liberties and rights, high illiteracy rates, corruption, health care, illegitimate elections and lack of civil liberties. The main group leading these protests was known as 20 February. The 20 February group then created a Facebook page as well as a YouTube campaign video that later went viral. 20 February also rallied the capital later in 2011, chanting “Down with autocracy.” Thousands of people also demonstrated in Casablanca demanding political reform.

Although the protests were active from 2011 to the beginning of 2013, King Mohammed VI is still in power, and democracy has not yet been fully accomplished.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12518116

Freedom of Expression and Democracy

The attempts and claims of democracy being made by both Libyan and Moroccan government are being harshly criticized by many who believe that a true democracy cannot exist without open media and freedom of speech.

Freedom of expression could be considered one of the most fundamental of all freedoms, but could you imagine living without it? The term “freedom of expression” encompasses not only spoken words, but written words, thoughts, and ideals as well. Also included in freedom of expression is the right to criticize injustices, inequalities and government activities. Unfortunately, in places such as Libya and Morocco, freedom of expression has generally been at risk, especially regarding forms of mass media.

Mass media is one of the best instruments for a society to exercise its right to freedom of expression, and in terms of democracy, media is the best way to convey accurate, truthful and opinion focused ideas about government and current events, and in order to form a true democracy, governments should try to protect media rights for citizens, not abolish them.

In a proper democratic state, the main functions of mass media are to cover the events and to gather and spread information. In turn, society may exercise control over the authorities after obtaining the knowledge media presents by exercising their own freedom of expression and voting during elections.

Three years ago, under Gaddafi’s rule, Libyan citizens took to the streets to demand greater freedom of expression, a right that had been previously ignored in the country, especially through media channels. Under his rule, Gaddafi routinely used repressive legislation to silence his critics and opponents, and formed Articles to enforce the punishment of prison times for citizens who publicly insulted the government, whether it is in person or through media forms.

Similar to Libya, Morocco’s reign under King Mohammed VI, put force on citizens to avoid criticizing government as well.

Recently these countries have made a great effort to from democracy, but both have a long way to go in regards to freedom of expression for all.

What do you think about the importance of freedom of expressions in democracy? Should there be restrictions on these expressions such as hate speech or obscenities? Tell us in a comment below!

sources: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/libya-three-years-gaddafi-era-laws-used-clamp-down-free-expression-2014-02-13
http://www.democracyweb.org/expression/principles.php

One thought on “Introduction

  1. gth5052

    I’m not surprised that they have a strict media structure. I’ve been hearing lately about what was happening in Libya today. Of countries that’s aren’t the US I find learning of there past much more interesting. So their first Revolution was around 1969 that wasn’t too long ago was only 45 years ago. and there second in 2011. It’s a good thing we have social media and journalist to tell the world what is going on, if we didn’t then people wouldn’t have heard of their protests. Gaddafi like any ruler in power that would want it taken away tries to stop and threatens the protest movement to stop, so forces them and causes the Libyan Revolution. It is sad that within every war many people die but 30,000 is a lot. This shows how strong the people are for their freedom which I love how you tied down and connected freedom with the other sections. I love that they are now able to vote in 2012 after six decades. This shows that today they are still strong fright for their rights and freedom. You did a great job capturing their history in this introduction.

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