In possibly the worst example yet of foreign journalists being attacked while covering the uprising in the Middle East and North Africa, two journalists for the BBC were arrested and tortured by Libyan officials.
In addition to being repeatedly cuffed and beaten by officials, the pair saw and spoke to other prisoners, who were chained in tiny cages inside of a military camp.
The next morning, the journalists were subjected to a mock execution, with hoods placed over their heads and forced to line up against the wall, as an army officer shot at the wall right next to them.
Update: A video interview with the journalists is after the jump.
The ordeal represents the most serious incident yet involving the targeting of the international media and may offer an insight into the fate of many of those opposition supporters who have been rounded during the regime’s crackdown on its opponents.
It also offers the first real eyewitness depiction of conditions endured by those arrested by the regime, including those whose only crime has been to talk to foreign journalists.