By Daoud Kuttab

Suleiman al Kabaili sits in an office that has clearly been rearranged to convert it into a makeshift studio. The wall behind the desk has a naked nail that used to hold a framed photo of the Libyan dictator. Suleiman, a radio studio director, dates the genesis of the current crop of media to an event exactly one year before the launch of the 17^th of February revolution.

“We were producing a radio programme called “good evening Benghazi” on the local Benghazi state-owned radio station.  The programme was dealing with local issues with a critical approach and had discussed the call for investigation of the Abu Slim massacre in which 1,200 are reported to have been killed. The following day we were called by the security and detained.” Continue Reading »

 By Daoud Kuttab

The first thing you notice upon entering Mitiga Airport in Tripoli is a series of signs with the word “No” in capital letters next to illustrations of automatic weapons. The second thing is just how liberally most Libyans interpret these rules.

In the days following the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the rules were not quite in effect. Revolutionaries nonchalantly toted their Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers as they whiled away their preboarding hours at the gate. An airport official roamed the terminal with a gun marked with a bar-code tag, beseeching the owner to claim his checked luggage. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The King’s visit on Monday was the first to Palestine in a decade. He didn’t visit or meet any Israeli official.

It is not that the King and Abbas do not see each other. Almost every time that the PLO leader leaves Ramallah to travel abroad he makes a stop to visit his “brother”, King Abdullah. However, what makes this particular visit important is its public nature. Continue Reading »