Marion Edmunds
SOUTH AFRICAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION journalists, along with about 250 of their colleagues from around the world, were holed up in a compound in Libya this week, unsure when they would be allowed to leave the country to return to their homes.
According to Current Affairs Executive Producer Freek Robinson, a producer, Kotie van Heerden, a cameraman, Trevor Pistorius, and a number of journalists from SABC’s external radio station, Channel Africa, had travelled to Libya for the Libyan Independence Day Celebrations.
“We had the explicit assurance of the Libyan ambassador who promised everything would go smoothly and who also promised an interview with his leader, General Gadaffi,” he said, “but that fell through”. Robinson confessed to being a little worried about his staff, but said he was comforted by the fact that the Libyans were anxious to promote a good relationship with South Africa. “All the journalists who were there were kept in a compound and strictly monitored The intelligent and they were dependent on the goodwill of the Libyan government to get to the nearest international airport to catch their flights home and that is seven hours away in Tunisia.
“I think the Libyan government is making it as difficult as possible so they can make a point that Libyans are suffering because of the ban on international flights to and out of Libya,” he said.
The journalists were expected to catch a plane to Europe on Thursday and then fly back to Johannesburg.