How social media gets information to Libyan population

With severe restrictions imposed on the media in Libya, the internet has emerged as an important window through which traditional media outlets, particularly pan-Arab TV channels, can provide coverage of the unrest.

Libya does not allow foreign media to operate freely on its soil, which has made it difficult for international broadcasters to cover the protests that have gripped the country since 17 February.

But user-generated content has helped channels such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya to report some of what appeared to be a brutal crackdown on protesters demanding an end to the 42-year rule of Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi (Colonal Gaddafi).

The Libyan authorities have been imposing a media blackout on the actual developments in the country. TV, which initially ignored the protests, has been trying to depict the demonstrators as saboteurs and foreign agents. Most airtime has either been dedicated to showing recorded images of pro-Qadhafi rallies or patriotic songs and music.

From time to time, quiet streets have been shown, with banks operating normally and other similar images, in an attempt to suggest the situation has not spiralled out of the control of the authorities.

Although Libya has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the Arab world (about 5.5%), web-based social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube are accessible, despite unconfirmed rumours on the blocking of Twitter on 17 February.

The social media represents a small window through which pan-Arab traditional media outlets can see and relay part of what is going on in the country, and has proven to be highly important when picked up by stations such as the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and the Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya.

Both stations are widely watched inside the country and by millions of Arab viewers in the Middle East and around the world. Satellite dishes are widely available in Libya.

Al-Jazeera's Sharek and Al-Arabiya's Ana Arab are two dedicated portals through which both stations have been receiving the user-generated content from within the country.

Since the start of the unrest, both TV stations have been broadcasting images of the clashes between protesters and the security forces, scenes of violence against demonstrators and other developments on the ground.

Despite the denial of the use of mercenaries to clamp down on protesters, on 21 February, Al-Jazeera showed footage of Libyan protesters in Benghazi appearing to hold a person of African appearance who they described as a mercenary.

There has been an emphasis on the scope of brutality against demonstrators, which may have earned them the support and sympathy of other Libyans who decided to join the demonstrations, thus spreading protests even further.

Both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have shown scenes of people killed or injured. Al-Jazeera even warned its viewers that it had received very shocking images of the victims of what it said were air attacks on the protesters, and it would not be showing them. However, the station later said that, after it received numerous phone calls asking it to show the images so that people could learn the truth, it had decided to show them. The images were indeed very shocking, showing several bodies lying in a morgue, burnt and dismembered.

Muhammad Shukri is Middle East Media Analyst, BBC Monitoring.