Libya's media landscape.
Four years after the fall of Muammar al-Qadhafi, Libya is experiencing an unprecedented information war. Its media are divided along partisan lines, reflecting the country's deepening political and armed power struggle. Privately-owned media push their respective agendas and sometimes engage in incitement. State-run media have split into two camps, one aligned with the House of Representatives (HoR) government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni in eastern Libya, and the other with the self-declared government of Omar al-Hassi in Tripoli. The deliberate peddling by partisan media of false or misleading narratives is feeding the country's conflict and making prospects for consensus and reconciliation bleaker.
The dearth of accurate, non-partisan reporting is skewing domestic and international perceptions of the conflict and efforts to resolve it.
The marked partisanship of Libya's media will cause armed and political groups to become more suspicious of broadcasters and the press.
This will lead to further harassment of and violent attacks on local and foreign journalists.
The information war risks further alienating a population already disconnected from the political process and state institutions.
