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MISSING JOURNALIST FOUND DEAD

Daif al-Ghazal al-Shuhaibi, a former reporter for a state-owned newspaper in Libya, was found dead on 2 June 2005 in the coastal city of Benghazi, east of Tripoli, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF). He had been tortured.

Al-Shuhaibi, 32, had gone missing since 22 May, when two gunmen identifying themselves as national security officials abducted him, according to RSF. At the time of his death, the journalist wrote for the London-based online newspaper http://www.libya-alyoum.com("Libya Today"). His articles were critical of the Movement of Revolutionary Committees (MRC), Libya's de facto ruling party.

Last year, Al-Shuhaibi had called on Libyan intellectuals to form a civil society committee against corruption and had received threats from the MRC, says RSF. Previously, Al-Shuhaibi worked for "Azahf Al-Akhdar", a daily newspaper owned by the MRC. He quit in 2003.

Libya's media is tightly controlled by the government, says CPJ. Outside of the country, little information about Libya is available. According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, Libya has taken important steps over the past year to improve its human rights record, but serious problems remain. Libyan laws continue to criminalise free expression and anyone who criticises President Muammar Qaddafi or the 1969 revolution that brought him to power can be sentenced to death.

Visit these links:
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14012- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Libya06june05na.html- Human Rights Watch Report: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/05/23/libya10983.htm- AlertNet: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GH0627945.htm- Amnesty International: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE190022004