CNN’s Ivan Watson Describes Reporting Under Government Control: Seeing Libya ‘Through A Keyhole’

CNN’s Ivan Watson is one of the Western journalists trying to do real reporting in Libya despite the intense restrictions imposed by the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, which forces journalists to stay in one specific hotel, and only allows reporters to see the country outside the hotel on government-run bus trips–many of which begin without the journalists knowing where they’re headed. “It’s like seeing Libya through a keyhole,” Watson says in a video diary report on the restrictions he faces each day.

For Watson, the government’s show-and-tell trips often fail to deliver a convincing story, such as the tour of a building described by government minders as a “civilian target” bombed by NATO. A short walk around the property revealed military uniforms and a box Watson described as likely used to carry ammunition.

Watch it here, from CNN:

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