Baltimore Activists in Solidarity with Wisconsin Protest

AlJazeera posted about the media shutdown in Libya at least early this morning, if not yesterday and/or the day before. People can learn from AlJazeera, directly, and if people want to check what Reuters said, then people can check what both say.

I'm pretty sure to have seen an article there this morning and one yesterday or the day before. Though they might be the same piece, for I only read the titles and brief, one-sentence descriptions, AlJazeera may've posted updates. And it seems that the media shutdown was quite severe.

http://english.aljazeera.net

I just checked and don't quickly find the article(s), and maybe I saw links to them at other Web sites, like www.uruknet.info, www.antiwar.com and www.informationclearinghouse.info, f.e. AlJazeera doesn't post links for many articles in one page, but how many times does a visitor need to click "Next" for next page? I'm not going to bother trying that. It's in the Middle East section and too much is going on there. ICH, however, provides links for a few or more days worth of articles in the home page though, so it's easy to check.

Well, ICH has a linked article, but it's the Reuters one, probably the same one linked in the above post.

"Al Jazeera signal jammed in Mideast, Libya suspected"
Feb. 20, 2011

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE71J0F820110220?rpc=401&fe...

Using Google, there's an AlJazeera piece from Feb. 1st, but it's about media problems for AlJazeera in Egypt, not Libya.

"Signal disruptions hit Al Jazeera
Broadcast on Nilesat, Arabsat and Hotbird platforms facing interference on scale not experienced before, channel says."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/20112118559309958.html

The following and some other articles from over the weekend, however, do refer to the media problem in Libya; also found using Google.

"Uprising flares in Libyan city
Army vehicles reportedly seized by protesters in Benghazi as demonstrations against Muammar Gaddafi's rule escalate."

Feb. 20, 2011

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/201122014259976293.html

(snip)

Communication cut

Verifying news from Libya has been difficult since the protests began, because of restrictions on journalists entering the country, as well as internet and mobile phone blackouts imposed by the government.

The Libyan government has blocked Al Jazeera's TV signal in the country - and residents have also reported that the network's website is inaccessible from there.

This affects viewers on Arabsat and Nilesat at 26 degrees east and 7 degrees west, where alternative frequencies have now been set up.

A spokesman for the network said whoever was causing the interference must be using large outstations to simultaneously interfere with several platforms on the two orbital positions of Arabsat and Nilesat.

"We have set up alternative frequencies for viewers and are investigating the source of the problem, though cooperation would be needed from governments to precisely determine this," said the network.

"We believe that whoever is doing this is operating with sophisticated and large equipment."

In addition to TV signal jamming, internet service has been cut, said a US company that monitors web traffic.

Massachusetts-based Arbor Networks said data collected from 30 internet service providers worldwide showed that online traffic in and out of Libya was disconnected abruptly at 2:15am local time on Saturday. The data also showed two partial service interruptions earlier in the day.

As of Sunday, it was still possible to reach Libyans by phone, and some in Tripoli had internet access.