Basically, a woman burst into a Libyan hotel full of Western reporters and started to yell that she had been raped and beaten by government forces. She told her story as government officials and waiters in the hotel tried to take her away and stop her from talking. Reporters tried to protect her and pull them away from her.
Journalists tried to smuggle the footage out of the hotel but were forcibly stopped... one British journalist got punched in the face and a few had their cameras smashed. Fortunately some footage survived so her story isn't lost.
Eventually she was dragged outside, pushed into a car and taken away.
You can see all of this here (but I should warn that if you are easily affected by these types of things it best to not click the link):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZaQF_p45I
I have to say this story really got to me. Not because I am shocked that rape and brutallity occurs in Libya. Not because I'm shocked that freedom of speech was swiftly shut down the way it was. Mostly I am shocked because it's one thing hearing about it, acknowledging it... It's another thing seeing it.
We've seen a lot of footage over the past few weeks come out of Libya and a lot of it has been awful. I guess this shocked me more than that because we've become accustomed to seeing shocking scenes on our televisions be it natural disaster or war. It just all seems so detached. You come to see it as the West vs X, protesters vs government... it's awful, but not very personal. This really reminded me of the individuals involved in this whole thing, and all I can say is that I hope she is alive.
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