The nine-year-old boy who survived Wednesday’s Libyan air crash needs better protection from the media, a senior foreign affairs ministry official said on Friday.

Ed Kronenburg, who flew to Tripoli yesterday to coordinate Dutch efforts there, said he was shocked the Telegraaf newspaper had managed to speak to the boy. A journalist had phoned one of the doctors treating the child who then apparently passed on his mobile phone.
Kronenburg told Nos radio has urged the Dutch ambassador to Libya to make it clear the boy’s privacy is to be respected and he is to be left alone.
Only medical staff and family members should be allowed at his bedside, Kronenburg told Nos radio. ‘We have to make sure his privacy is better protected.’
The Libyan authorities have now stepped up police security around the ward where Ruben is being treated, Nos said.
Families
Yesterday junior home affairs minister Ank Bijleveld urged the media to respect the privacy of families who had lost loved ones in the crash.
‘Many families have said ‘please don’t phone us or knock on our doors’,’ Bijleveld said. ‘We hope the press will do that.’
Deputy prime minister André Rouvoet has described the Telegraaf’s action in phoning Ruben as ‘shameless’.