UN Authority Figures

UN Committee on Information: Libya

Photo: People protesting the assassination of Miftah Bouzeid, editor of the weekly newspaper Burniq, during a rally. Bouzeid, a critic of Islamist extremists, was shot dead in the centre of Benghazi.
Source: Orange Magazine June 1, 2015

Mission of the Committee on Information: "...To promote the establishment of a new, more just and more effective world information and communication order intended to strengthen peace and international understanding and based on the free circulation and wider and better-balanced dissemination of information and to make recommendations thereon to the General Assembly." (Committee on Information website, "About the Committee")

Libya's Term of office: 2000 (P.3, Para 15) - current

Libya's Record on Freedom of Information:
"The GNC [interim government] limited freedom of speech in law and practice. Invoking the penal code, the GNC criminalized a variety of types of political speech, including speech considered to "tarnish the [country's] reputation or undermine confidence in it abroad," speech "insulting constitutional and popular authorities," and speech "publicly insulting the Libyan Arab people."... A large number of bloggers, online journalists, and citizens reported practicing self-censorship due to instability, militia intimidation, and the uncertain political situation. Some activists reported finding what appeared to be "kill liss" targeting civilian dissenters on social media websites affiliated with certain Islamist militias..."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2014, Libya)