RSF - Reporters sans frontières
RSF - Reporters sans frontières
10/23/2026 | Press release | Archived content
Libya: RSF condemns abduction of journalist threatened with death for investigating corruption
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) strongly condemns the abduction and abuse suffered by Hassan Bakir. The journalist for the Libyan News Agency (LANA), abducted on 20 October in northwestern Libya, was tortured, interrogated, and threatened with death if he did not stop his investigations into corruption, before being abandoned on the motorway. RSF calls on the Libyan authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation to identify those responsible and bring them to justice as soon as possible, and to ensure the protection of the journalist and his family.
According to information gathered by RSF, Hassan Bakir was abducted by an armed group outside his newsroom in Misrata on 20 October. His kidnappers drove him from Misrata to Tripoli in a vehicle with tinted windows, a distance of more than 200 kilometres. After holding him captive, they eventually abandoned him lying by the roadside, where security units affiliated with the western Libyan government found him during the night of 20-21 October. Hassan Bakir has since been hospitalised at Iwan Specialist Hospital in Misrata.
Hassan Bakir told RSF that he had been beaten and tortured during his captivity. He explained that his attackers had questioned him at length about his journalistic work, particularly the investigations he regularly publishes on his social media accounts into corruption and the embezzlement of funds in the awarding of public contracts and projects. The journalist also testified that he had been threatened with death if he did not stop covering these subjects.
"This abduction, carried out in broad daylight outside a newsroom, followed by torture to silence a journalist investigating corruption, illustrates both the dangers of working as a journalist and the level of impunity enjoyed by armed groups in Libya. Targeting journalists means targeting the right of Libyans to know what is happening in their country. Hassan Bakir survived, but his kidnappers remain at large, and he and his colleagues continue to be at risk. We call on the Libyan authorities to identify and prosecute the perpetrators and those who ordered this attack, as soon as possible and to guarantee the protection of the journalist and his family. We also call more broadly on the authorities throughout the country to ensure the safety of media professionals and put an end to impunity for crimes committed against them.
Oussama Bouagila
Director, RSF North Africa
Libyan journalists, particularly those investigating corruption, public funding, or armed groups, work in a climate of constant fear, exposed to abductions, arbitrary detention, and violence, most often without their attackers being held accountable. Libya ranks 138th out of 180 countries and territories in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index.
Published on 23.10.2026
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