Hala Misrati ( ar, هالة المصراتي; born 9 September 1980) is a

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

n writer, television anchor and journalist. She came to wide prominence around the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

during the

First Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Libya ...

, during which she made pro-Gaddafi government broadcasts on Libyan state television.

Early life and education

Hala Misrati was born in Tripoli; she obtained a BA in law from Al Fateh University in 2003. She published a collection of short stories in 2007 entitled "The moon has another face", which a review from Middle-East-Online.com praised her "humane honesty", and described her as someone who "is angry like a child about the lies of others.". She began working in television in 2008.Hala Misrati, Libyan State TV Host, Leaps To Fame

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(

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), 7 April 2011

2009 incident

On 24 April 2009, the quasi-independent al-Libiyya satellite television channel interview show ''Ain Qurb'' ("Up Close") was abruptly interrupted when its signal was replaced by the one from the state-run al-Jamahiriya channel. According to the

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United States diplomatic cables leak The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began on Sunday, 28 November 2010 when WikiLeaks began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates, embassies, and ...

, the show host Hala Misrati, who was

hardball Hardball, in English, more specifically American English, generally refers to baseball (as opposed to its variant softball), especially when played very competitively. Metaphorically, it refers to uncompromising and ruthless methods or dealings, ...

-style interviewing senior Revolutionary Committees member Mustafa Zaidi, was questioned by state security officers who entered the studio after the cut.STATE MEDIA PULLS THE PLUG ON SAIF AL-ISLAM'S SATELLITE CHANNEL, ARRESTS MANAGER
''

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'' (

), 31 January 2011 On 29 April, Misrati was interviewed in the Oea newspaper, where she downplayed the interruption of her program, saying that the individuals who questioned her were not security officers, and that their questions were benign. She blamed differences of opinion between her guest Mustafa Zaidi and other Revolutionary Committees members for the crisis, and criticized the strictures placed on journalists in Libya by reactionary regime figures.

Rose to fame during the First Libyan Civil War

Misrati's pro-Gaddafi stance made her a famous TV personality during the

. Video clips of her mistakes and loyalty to Gaddafi were widely viewed on YouTube. In one famous example, Hala Misrati claimed that Muslims could not accept the UN's move to "adopt" the draft resolution authorizing NATO airstrikes over Libya because Islam prohibits adoption – of children. In her last broadcast– a day before

Libyan State TV Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation (LJBC) ( ar, الهيئة العامة لإذاعات الجماهيرية العظمى) was the state-run broadcasting organization in Libya under the History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi, rule of Mua ...

was taken over by the anti-Gaddafi rebels– Misrati brandished a pistol and vowed "You he Libyan rebelswon't take the channel, Tripoli, or Libya! I will protect my colleagues at the ibyan State TVchannel…we are willing to become martyrs" adding "with this weapon I either kill or die today!".

Capture by rebels

On 22 August 2011, during the Battle of Tripoli, the rebels stormed the headquarters of Libyan State TV and captured Misrati. She was arrested when she was driving through Tripoli, and was taken to an office building for questioning. An armed mob of rebels tried to storm the office where she was, and they had to be dispersed by a rebel officer by firing his gun through the ceiling. The next day, Misrati appeared on a video arguing with her captors, even when they pointed their automatic rifles at her. She also appeared veiled (when she usually don't wear veil when she appeared on TV) on 19 February 2012 in another brief video, denying the media reports of her assassination, saying "I'm still alive, and I am still among the rebels. I was not killed, was not treated badly,"

Release

In February 2012, Hala Misrati was released in Tripoli, where she had been jailed. In an interview with the Libyan resistance radio, she declared that the armed militias were controlling the country, and not the

National Transitional Council The National Transitional Council of Libya ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي '), sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, was the ''de facto'' government of Libya for a period during and after the Libyan Civil War ...

and that the pro-Gaddafi resistance was still fighting. Finally, she revealed that the Gaddafi government forces had 23

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

s during the war, while the rebels had more than 100. As of 2018, she is living in

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. She had also spent time in

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and is planning to write her

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

References