Media groups slam attacks against journalists
Reageer (0)7-8-2010
NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Reporters Without Borders and a forum of Palestinian journalists separately condemned the recent wave of violence against journalists across the occupied Palestinian territories.
In a statement issued Friday, Reporters Without Borders urged Palestinian leaders to act responsibly, explaining, "Not a week goes by without flagrant press freedom violations in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. It is becoming increasingly common for journalists to be made to pay for the political rivalry between Hamas and Fatah."
The press freedom organization asked the Gaza government to investigate an attack on Aljazeera.net reporter Ahmed Moussa Abu Fayadh in Khan Younis on Wednesday.
According to an investigation by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Fayadh, 36, was taking photographs of a concert at a playground in the southern Gaza Strip when a police officer accosted him. Fayadh was ordered to accompany the officer to a sports arena where a number of police officers were stationed. He was also forced to bring his three children with him.
The journalist told PCHR that police ordered him to hand over his camera, and when he refused, showing his press card, two of the officers punched him and attacked him with a golf club, while a third confiscated his camera.
“I was attacked before the eyes of my children who were crying,” Fayadh added.
Reporters Without Borders also condemned the raid of a radio station in Nablus on Wednesday by five employees of the Palestinian Authority’s customs department and the Ministry of Telecommunications. The station’s transmitter was confiscated in the raid, the statement said.
Two days earlier, the head of the customs department, accompanied by the head of the ministry’s communications directorate, went to Ma'an's Nablus TV headquarters and order the station to stop broadcasting immediately in compliance with a ministerial decision.
The organization for media freedom added that police were summoned when staff refused to comply, and Nablus TV employees who filmed the raid were manhandled, their cameras were seized and the footage deleted.
The ministry announced last month that stations operating without licenses would be shut down, although Nablus TV head Mahmoud Barham said the station was in the process of applying for a license.
Reporters Without Borders also condemned the detention of five journalists in the West Bank. Farid Abu Duhair, journalism lecturer at An-Najah University and the head of the Nablus bureau of the newspaper Ennajah, was detained at his home on 2 August. He has often criticized the PA in his articles, Reporters Without Borders said.
Online journalist Mohammad Anwar Meni was detained by PA security forces last month, two days after his release from 11 months in administrative detention inside Israel.
Amer Abu Arfa was sentenced to three months in prison and a fine of 500 Jordanian dinars (approximately $700) on 26 July on a charge of "violating the regulations in force." Abu Arfa is a correspondent of Shibab, a Gaza-based news agency regarded as pro-Hamas, the statement said.
The PA is also holding Tareq Abu Zeid, a correspondent of Hamas TV station Al-Aqsa.
A forum of Palestinian journalists expressed concern on Saturday over the arrests, and the raids in Nablus, and called on the Ministry of Telecommunications to review its handling of Palestinian media outlets.
The forum acknowledged the ministry’s right to ensure all media organizations comply with legal and licensing obligations, and thanked the Minister of Telecommunications Mashhur Abu Daqa for his apology over the Nablus incident.
The minister said the raids occurred without the ministry’s approval, and the forum asked media outlets to play an active role in establishing accountability for the shutdowns.
The media forum called for an end to the arrests, summons, and harassment of journalists by the Palestinian Authority, and demanded the immediate release of five journalists detained in the West Bank.
The forum urged international organizations, the PLC, Islamic and national factions to intervene to pressure security forces to abide by the law and to stop harassing journalists.
Source
