Updated | Ministry denies signing of agreement for Libya to open TV station

A spokesperson for the Home Affairs Ministry denied an agreement was signed for Libyan radio and television stations to start broadcasting from Malta.

The agreement was reported as having taken place by online news portal Libya Herald, quoting the head of the Media and Culture Authority Omar Al-Guweri.

MaltaToday is informed that the two sides explored the possibility for Maltese journalists to visit Libya and its parliament to report on the current situation.

Guwairi told Libya Herald he signed a number of agreements with home affairs minister Manuel Mallia, including a deal to reactivate a radio station in Malta which was closed after the 2011 revolution.

Another agreement should lead to the creation of an office for the state-owned Wataniya TV channel in Malta, after its offices in Tripoli were taken over by the Libya Dawn militias which have snapped the capital away from forces loyal to the Libyan government, which has withdrawn to the eastern town of Tobruk.

 “We have a very good media facility in Malta but unfortunately it has been neglected,” Guwairi said on the shut radio station.

Malta and Libya had also agreed, he added, to ease the process for Libyan journalists to go to Malta and vice versa.

“We have invited Malta to send its press to visit the government in Beida and the parliament in Tobruk, to give them the opportunity to observe their work,” he said, adding that the whole world was welcome to go and see what was happening in the troubled North African country.

Last week, Al-Guweri was part of the Libyan government delegation, led by Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni, which was in Malta for high-level talks with the Maltese government, UN Special envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon and US Ambassador Deborah Jones.

Following the visit to Malta, the Libyan government stepped up its efforts to gain international recognition and support in its efforts to regain control of the country following the capture of the capital by the Libya Dawn militias.

Yesterday, First Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Security Affairs, Almahdi Hassan Muftah Allabad, was in Abu Dhabi for talks with government officials about UAE support to Libya.

Allabad had talks with UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Central Bank Governor Mubarak Rashid Al Mansouri, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the UAE’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Mohammed Hammad Al Shamsi.

Since the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2010, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have been jostling for influence in the region with their respective special forces supporting rival factions in Libya with intelligence, training and arms.

Earlier this summer, US government officials accused the UAE of carrying out military air strikes against Islamist fighters in Tripoli from Egyptian airbases.