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By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 5 May 2013:
International Press Freedom Day was celebrated at an event at the Radisson hotel, Tripoli, on 3 . . .[restrict]May.
The event was supported by the Press Support Authority and the Ministry of Information and was held under the banner “Freedom of the Press – Freedom of the Nation”.
The event was attended by over 150 people and was headed by the Deputy Prime Minister Abdulsalam Al-Gadi, Justice Minister Salah Maraghni, Electricity Minister Ali Muhairiq, Information Minister Yousef Sherief and Culture Minister Habib Lamin.
Opening the event, and in a rare appearance for the most recently appointed Minister, Information Minister Yousef Sherief stressed that he was here as a journalist first and as a Minister second. “I consider the attacks on the media over the last few days as crimes – crimes that need to be investigated”, he opened.
“This is an important day because the media and the freedom of expression has suffered over the last 42 years. Those days the media was enslaved”, but today “we will defend the freedom of the press because it means a free nation. There can be no free nation without the freedom of the press, and there can be no free press without a free nation”, Minister Sherief stressed.
The future will confirm this”, he added and “we are confident of the free press in Libya”, the Information Minister concluded. [/restrict]
