Cabinet Secretary Hold Meeting With Directors of LANA and Other Media Bosses.

Tripoli, 5 August 2018(Lana) The Cabinet Secretary General Al Tahe Al Jheimi on Sunday afternoon held an extended meeting with the Administrative Director of the Public Information Authority and the Directors of the Libyan News Agency, the National Television Channel and the Official Television Channel. The meeting centered on the difficulties facing these institutions and ways of overcoming them. The Director of the Libyan News Agency Al Aref Byouk said at the meeting Lana faced a series of problems which shackled its performance and its contribution to coverage of events inside and outside Libya, and led to freezing of its membership in regional and international information organisations. Lack of resources has caused the agency to close its offices in Arab and foreign countries, he said, adding that due to scarcity of funds Lana was unable to pay subscriptions to major international news providers since 2011. He highlighted the role Lana has, as a national news agency provider since its establishment 50 years ago, and as a verified source of news across Libya. Despite the fact that Lana is the national news agency, it has been widely ignored by the ministries and government agencies, which often resort to publish their activities on SMS networks, Byouk told the meeting. He demanded that the Agency be beefed up with new recruits of young journalists in various fields, to enable it to perform its duty as a verified and respected news provider. =Lana=