Hostage Situation: Journalists Held By Pro-Gaddafi Forces In Tripoli Hotel (Update)

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by Zara Golden | 9:36 am, August 24th, 2011

» 17 comments

“With an 18,000-square-foot spa, helicopter service upon request and a self-described ‘culture of service perfection,’” does not, to us, sound much like jail. However, as the battle for Libya falls towards the rebels favor, it’s hard to blame the cadre of journalists stuck inside Tripoli’s premier hotel, the Rixos — now one of the last Gadhafi strongholds — for feeling like prisoners. But as the days draw out, it must be asked, are they being held hostage? Update – they have been freed from captivity.

The New York Times reported yesterday that the hotel has served as a hub for Libyan government officials and foreign journalists throughout the past six months. And while Gadhafi forces once acted as gracious hosts to properly credentialed journalists, the Times reminds that they kept a heavy hand, as reporters “were kept under a close watch. Trips into Tripoli conflict zones were led by chaperones, and no journalists were allowed out without one.” The other, less lavish option for journalists working in Libya was to embed with the rebels, a risk that proved worthwhile for reporters like Sky’s Alex Crawford.

Armed government forces have kept the 35 foreign journalists who where guests at Tripoli’s luxurious looking Rixos holed up inside since the weekend, and as CNN’s Matthew Chance expressed to Anderson Cooper last night and then again on Twitter this morning, there is growing concern as to why. As the rest of Tripoli and much of Libya falls into rebel control, why are pro-Gadhafi forces holding tight on the Rixos? Are the journalists being held as future hostages?

Reporters Without Borders suggests as much in a statement today. “They are held hostage on the hotel’s first floor, the prisoners of a dying regime that refuses to lay down its arms,” they write, pointing out increasingly trying conditions as power is cut and food and water run low. “Their situation is very worrying,” they conclude, urging the National Transitional Council, which has been recognized by many as Libya’s provisional government, to “do everything in its power to allow journalists to cover the fighting freely and safely.”

Chance reported via twitter this morning that several journalists had tried to enter the Rixos from the outside, but were kicked out at gunpoint. There have also been reports of gunshots in the areas around the hotel. Has the battle for the Rixos begun? Are the journalists being held as pawns? Saved until the end days to be traded by desperate Gadhafi forces?

While they wait, those stuck inside have done their part to broadcast their travails to the world.

A Chinese journalist from CCTV led a video tour of the hotel, paying special attention to windows blocked with mattresses and waning water supplies.

CNN’s Matthew Chance has been tweeting the journalists time inside the hotel, marking both the highs (“We raided the hotel larder and got tons of cheese!”) and lows (“We are plunged back into darkness and discomfort”), as well as the growing desperation: “We’d like to leave to a safer location and negotiate an exit, but we are being prevented from doing so.”

With about half of the news coming from journalists in Tripoli coming from inside the embattled Rixos, this series of photos from Reuters Paul Hackett (via The Atlantic Wire) from inside the luxury hotel-cum-prison make for an interesting peephole into the weird corner of Libya they are stuck in, and makes a case for a prison-like atmosphere, albeit generously chandeliered. The photos show the journalists, generally decked in bullet-proof vests and helmets, on cell phones and conducting interviews like reporters wont do, watching a movie together (r&r is important, even in war!), and, most frighteningly, dodging bullets in front of a marble elevator bank.

CNN, Libya, Matthew Chance, New York Times, Paul Hackett, Reuters, Rixos, Tripoli

Anonymous

Looks like a good excuse to send “special forces” to “rescue” the “journalists”; then of course remain in Libya for 60 years on “enduring bases” to safeguard “American interests”.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1431811538 Josh Kim

Has anyone thought about sending the CIA to capture Megrahi?
Anonymous

Maxine Waters , Howard Dean , King Obama , etc.

Those are actual ” hostage takers ” and” terrorists ” in Libya .

Stop calling fellow Americans ” the enemy “ and the names above .

You know it’s wrong .

Stop that ” putting party ahead of country ” crap .

Stop the demagoguery .
Anonymous

Good place for them. Keep e’m there.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RSLEVQBMJKCHPALYRG4FM2LFPQ Chuck

Once they run out of complimentary body lotion you’ll see a real revolt. I’d question whether they are hostages or if the local powers that be just want to ensure they have a means of communicating to the outside world (their message).
Anonymous

I for one cannot get enough of these reports on how dire the overthrow of a nation is on our news reporters. Has the shelling interrupted the Dish Network feed? Are roadblocks preventing the next shift of room service? Are rebel forces hikjacking the beer deliveries? Wow, I thought they had it bad chasing Sarah Palin’s bus around.
Anonymous

Whew. That was a close one.
qwerty

taste of the right wing’s medicine
remember when you were questioning everyone’s loyalty and patriotism when the left questionned the wars?
and that was only for QUESTIONING…you guys actually wanted this country to default and you brought it close to…

btw try keeping politics out of a non political story
hope all the journalists are safe
Anonymous

Gadhafi?!?!

His name is usually spelled as Gadaffi.

On CSM I saw another spelling: Qaddafi.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2011/0824/Qaddafi-urges-resistance-as-Libyan-rebels-make-Tripoli-their-own

Go figure…
Anonymous

“We have conducted a number of Man-in-the-hallway interviews and we have learned that, to a person, the mini-bars have been empty for hours now. No word yet as to when anyone can expect linen service, but the outlook is not positive — authorities have already begun rationing towels in the sauna.
There are rampant reports of gift shop lootings, and there has been severe price gouging of shampoo and other toiletries on the black market. Tent cities have cropped up among the smokers in the stairwells, and neighbors are helping neighbors by sharing MP3 files and downloaded video files. With hair care products having been all but cut off entirely many an intrepid reporter has taken to filing reports in their battle helmets, and the Kevlar vest has been a useful tool in covering up wrinkled shirts.
— Reporting live, from the fourth floor atrium. . .
Anonymous

Wait, who wanted the default? More Dems voted against the debt-ceiling bill than Republicans.
qwerty

try not to be stupid

if it was a clean debt-ceiling raising bill ALL democrats would have voted for it
the ones who voted against it were against the cuts republicans insisted on without any revenue increase
but even those democrats would have voted for it if they thought the bill woudn’t pass because they, unlike the republicans, care about the country not defaulting

and because republicans didnt agree to the “grand bargain”…S&P downgraded the USA for the first time in history
the first year tbaggers went to washington is the first year the us gets downgraded lol
coincidence? I think not
qwerty

typical uncaring tbagger
Anonymous

Well at least this go round Barack was golfing and eating ( only vanilla ) ice cream on Martha’s Vinyard instead of cowering under his bed back at the White House like he usually does.

I wonder why it is the the second black president ( Clinton was the first ) has such an aversion to chocolate ( brown ) ice cream.

The Congressional black caucus and the NAACP really need to get to the bottom of this.
Anonymous

Brilliant: the Reps are responsible, even though the bill was passed into law, and even though more Dems voted against it THEIR no vote was more noble than the reps no vote, and additionally if we would have gone into default then those no-vote Dems would have actually voted yes, a fact you have no way of supporting or knowing. You should stop trying to be stupid.

So you are saying the downgrade had absolutely nothing to do with the ballooning of our debt over the past 2 years? The downgrade report mentioned the monstrous debt as the primary reason for the downgrade, but the no-vote Reps who could not stop the bill are actually the cause?
searching

primary reason is the deadlock ie the tea baggers
Anonymous

What deadlock? The bill passed, and Obama was happy about it — until the next day when they downgraded anyway, at which point Obama then did not like the law he signed?