UK miners' strike (1984–85) the NUM's assets, it began to look abroad for money, and found supplies in the Soviet bloc and, it was mistakenly thought, also from Libya. These countries were highly unpopular with the British public. The Soviet Union's official trade union federation donated £1.5 million to the NUM. Media reports alleged that senior NUM officials were personally keeping some of the funds. In November 1984, it was alleged that senior NUM officials had travelled to Libya for money. Cash from the Libyan government was particularly damaging coming seven months after the murder of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in
Free speech in the media during the 2011 Libyan Civil War planned this all along." The taxi driver, who was driving the crew and Robertson, was also held. According to Robertson the taxi driver had "done nothing more than give us a ride. He had no idea he might get into trouble." Robertson and his crew were released later the same day. Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Ali Hassan al-Jaber, a cameraman working for the Qatar-based satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, on 12 March in an ambush on the outskirts of the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Al-Jazeera said Al Jaber was returning to Benghazi after reporting in a nearby town when