Journalist gunned down in Benghazi

TRIPOLI: Gunmen shot dead a journalist who was an outspoken critic of radicals in Libya’s volatile east on Monday, a security official said.
The official said Moftah Abu Zeid, chief editor of the Brnieq newspaper, was attacked while driving his car down a main street in the eastern city of Benghazi. The official said the assailants fled the scene.
A journalist and analyst, Abu Zeid often went on television to criticize extremists, resulting in threats to his life according to a friend.
Abu Zeid’s newspaper last week carried a front page picture of a renegade general leading an offensive against militants in the city.
He later said militiamen halted a shipment of the last issue on its way from Benghazi to the capital Tripoli.
Radicals have condemned the offensive launched earlier this month by Gen. Khalifa Hiftar as a “coup” while several prominent government officials, diplomats and military units have rallied to his cause, hoping he can bring stability.
Reporters Without Borders, in a statement last week, voiced “deep concern about the fate of the country's journalists, who are yet again the targets of violence.”
It urged “all civilian, military and political actors ...to immediately end all attacks on civilians, including all journalists operating in Libya.”
“News providers have a fundamental role to play in the new Libya, especially in the overall process of building a viable and democratic state for the long term,” the France-based group said.