TRIPOLI: Security guards at Libya’s parliament have beaten up a crew of Alassema, an independent television network, the channel said on Sunday. “A team from (Alassema TV) went to cover a meeting of the national assembly on Friday, entering as they were permitted to,” the channel’s press office director Fethi Ben Aissa said.

“After interviewing an MP, the team was assaulted by plain clothes guards of the General National Congress,” he said, adding that “the public prosecutor has decided to open an inquiry into the incident.”

A video posted on the Internet, purportedly of the same incident, showed a cameraman being pushed and hit by men in civilian clothing, provoking an online uproar.