TRIPOLI -- Libya said on Friday that it is heading toward allowing private newspapers, radio and television news in what has been a state-controlled media environment for more than 30 years.

Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi's son, Seif Al Islam, who also runs the Qadhafi Goodwill Foundation, was given the green light by his father to spearhead the plan though a new company. "The first experimental program on one of the radio stations will take place in March," said Abdel Salam Al Mushri, an official at the company, which is called "1/9" in reference to the September 1 date of the 1969 Libyan revolution. "Preparations are underway to create a satellite television channel that will be launched in 2007," he said. "The first year, the channel will be made up of 60 percent Libyans and 40 percent foreigners," Mushri said without elaborating.

The company signed a $16 million contract with the German company Heidelberg to build a modern printing facility and will open to Western publications, Mushri said. Mushri added that the publications "will not be censored".

These publications were allowed in Libya but were censored before an international embargo was imposed in 1992 only to be lifted seven years later. "We will publish in September a daily in cooperation with the British Financial Times," Mushri said. "It will be a variety publication including politics and sports. Its door will be open to all Arab and Libyan journalists," he said.

Seif Al Islam Qadhafi has criticized Libyan newspapers for being "bland" and said that "nobody reads them" and has called for "freeing the media from the stranglehold of the state". However, the head of Libya's press association and editor of the Al-Jamamhiriya newspaper, Abdel Razzak Al Daheshe, said that he was opposed to the appearance of private media.

Privatization "will limit" the media's freedom because they will be "influenced by the orientation of the owner", he said.

However, Abdel Salam Aouir, a member of the Libyan journalists' syndicate, said that the development was "an important addition because Libyan media are behind [other countries] and this project will radically fix the problem". Libya has four official newspapers as well as one state television and one state radio station. [Middle East Times]

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libya said Sunday it was closing its embassy in Denmark to protest drawings of the prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper as anger over the controversy spread across the Middle East.

"Due to Danish authorities not taking a responsible stance in this concern, Libya has decided to close its (embassy) in Copenhagen," said a statement from Libya's Foreign Ministry. The statement said other measures would be taken but did not elaborate. Islam bars any depiction of the prophet, even respectful ones, out of concern that such images could lead to idolatry. Danish government officials have expressed regret for the furor caused by the 12 drawings but have refused to get involved, citing freedom of expression.

The Jyllands-Posten newspaper has refused to apologize for publishing the drawings and has said it did not mean to insult Islam. On Sunday, it printed a statement in Arabic addressed to Saudis who had initiated a boycott of Danish goods. It said the drawings were published as part of a Danish dialogue about freedom of expression but were misinterpreted "as if it were a campaign against Muslims in Denmark and in the Islamic world." On Sunday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Illah Khatib summoned the Danish ambassador to protest against what he said was an "intentional insult of Islam, its message and its honorable Prophet," the official Petra news agency reported. It said Khatib insisted that there must be measures taken to ensure no "recurrence of such violations."

Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark last week and Saudi citizens were boycotting Danish goods. Kuwait's state-supported supermarkets have announced a similar boycott and the government summoned a regional Danish ambassador to complain. Egypt's parliament demanded that Egypt recall its ambassadors to Denmark and Norway, where a newspaper reprinted the cartoons. The opposition Muslim Brotherhood demanded a boycott of products from the two countries.

Syria's Foreign Ministry called on the Danish government to take the "necessary measures to punish the offenders so that such offenses may not be repeated in the future." The Danish Embassy in Damascus tried to placate the anger, stressing that the drawings were not part of "a smear campaign" against Muslims. "This is certainly not the case," an embassy statement said. "The Danish government respects Islam as one of the world's major religions."

In Lebanon, the militant group Hezbollah urged Denmark and Norway to apologize and "take serious steps to prevent a recurrence of these repulsive phenomena whose cultural, social and political consequences will be felt in more than one direction." In two West Bank towns, Palestinians burned Danish flags to protest the caricatures and demanded an apology. Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said in a statement Sunday that he was "deeply worried" over the incidents in the Middle East.

The 12 drawings published last year in Jyllands-Posten included one showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. Another portrayed him with a bushy gray beard and a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle. "We at Jyllands-Posten feel regret because the issue has reached this level and we reiterate that we did not mean to insult anybody," the newspaper said in its statement Sunday. [Seattle Post]