There have been reports of the banning of “unfriendly” TV stations for covering protests, and al-Jazeera has often been the top of the list. As with violent crackdowns, however, Libya has taken the anti-news efforts to a new level.

Indeed, telecommunications experts are reporting massive scale jamming efforts coming from inside Libya, targeting al-Jazeera primarily but also hitting a number of smaller outlets as well. The jamming has kept al-Jazeera’s broadcasts off the air not only in Libya, but across the entire region.

Indeed, the interference against al-Jazeera has made the channel’s over-air signal virtually unreachable across the entire Middle East, and Lebanese officials had the jamming, originating all the way over in Libya, was blocking some of their domestic channels.

According to reports from al-Jazeera, Libya’s intelligence services have been intermittantly blocking their station since February 2, knocking it off air every time they talk about Libya’s protests. Starting Friday however, the blocking has been nearly constant.

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