The Libyan News Agency (LANA) has strongly condemned an armed raid on its headquarters in Tripoli and issued an urgent appeal for government authorities to intervene.
In an official statement released Monday, the state media outlet said its historic offices in the capital were forcibly entered and occupied by a security force after business hours on Sunday.
According to LANA, the security personnel sealed the premises with red wax, barring all employees from accessing the building and carrying out their duties the following morning.
The brazen action was branded unprecedented by the agency, which is preparing to mark its 60th anniversary this year after being founded by law in 1964. LANA stated the assault represented a flagrant violation of press freedoms, casting a “heavy shadow” over its workforce.
“Employees expressed outrage at this blatant attack on the sole media institution…which has nurtured generations of officials and journalists at both the national and regional levels,” the statement read.
The timing of the raid was particularly concerning for LANA, coming just days before celebrations for International Workers’ Day on May 1 and World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
LANA has urgently appealed to Libya’s House of Representatives, Presidential Council, and Attorney General to “immediately intervene to stop this unjustified crackdown on press and media freedoms.”
The statement was issued from LANA’s general administration headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi.