SETA occupies Libyan media with gov’t blessing, serving Erdogan’s scheme

Aya Ezz

Following the ouster of former Libyan president Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2012, the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organization infiltrated the country and its authorities and claimed itself as Al-Wefaq government.

Suspicious relations have risen between the media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Al-Wefaq government and the Turkish SETA Center for Political, Economic and Social Studies, as the center has since started its media takeover scheme in the country.

The Libyan News Agency has affirmed in a report that since 2015, relations between SETA and Al-Wefaq media began to increase, and the center sent a group of media professionals to Libya to give a number of Al-Wefaq journalists and media professionals training courses in the field of information and journalism writing.

According to a report published by Akhbar Libya newspaper, SETA cooperated with the Libya Ministry of Information, which is currently under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood to promote fake news and reports to spread chaos in Libya.

Other reports also pointed out that in the beginning of 2019 and 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, through SETA, managed to control Libya’s media outlets, as most of the newspapers are being funded by Turkey and Qatar.

In the same context, the SETA center managed during the past two years to occupy a significant media space in Libya, and used this matter to support terrorist militias and provide them with a lot of information.

SETA is mostly being operated by Muslim Brotherhood members and completely funded by Ankara to broadcast and prepare negative reports containing false and fabricated information on the political, economic, security and legal conditions in Arab countries, with the aim of tarnishing the country’s image internally and internationally.

Libyan political analyst Magdy Ismail has said the Turkish media has been controlling the Muslim Brotherhood media outlets in Libya since 2012, taking advantage of the chaos and deteriorating economy that the country has been suffering.

He affirmed in an interview with The Reference that Turkey has been seeking, through its terrorist and media arms, to take over Libya’s resources since the ouster and death of former president Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan political analyst pointed out that Turkey is using its money to tamper with the security of Libya, as it controls the media and uses it to support terrorism in the country.

He pointed out that Erdogan managed during the recent period to plant spies in newspapers fighting the Brotherhood’s media, but the Libyan National Army managed to arrest some of them.