Violations of media freedoms in OPT during February 2009
There has been a marked decrease of media freedoms violations during the past month in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), compared to the precedent month, due to the start of internal dialogue between Palestinian factions, and the non-declared truce between Hamas and Israel.
Violations committed by the Israeli occupation forces included the detention of the Russia Today TV crew in Salfit, and raiding Asia local TV in Nablus.
The Palestinian violations included: the deportation of the Al-Arabiya TV envoy from the Gaza Strip, the arrest of journalist Qais Abu Samra, and firing twice at the “al-Hayat Al Jadidah" newspaper headquarters.
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (Mada) expresses condemnation of all attacks against journalists and media outlets, calls on the perpetrators to stop them, and asks the authorities to bring those responsible to justice.
Details of violations:
(Feb. 2) – Russia Today TV crew was detained in Salfit city (WB), by Israeli occupation forces. Its correspondent Yafa Mohammed Stety (24 years) said that they were preparing a report about the confiscation of land in the Salfit area, by the occupation authorities for annexation to Ariel, a nearby settlement. An Israeli army patrol stopped them and asked for their identity cards. They were told that photography is prohibited there because it is a closed military zone. They handed the cameraman’s assistant, Ayman Louzi, notification to go to the Israeli Administration in Beit El near Ramallah for investigation. They detained the crew for three hours, and then released them.
(Feb. 7) – Al-Arabiya TV envoy Wael Esam was expelled from Gaza Strip by the Palestinian police. An Al-Arabiya source said a group of Palestinian police officers went to Al-Dira hotel in Gaza city, where Esam were staying, and asked him to leave the Strip immediately. According to Al-Arabiya they threatened to harm him if he did not leave immediately. He left Gaza strip the same day, through Rafah crossing. Al-Arabiya TV was exposed to a campaign by some Palestinians and Arabs on the Internet during the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, accusing it of “cooperation with Zionists to uncover the resistance missiles". In addition, its office in Gaza city was bombed on 22 January 2007, by an armed Palestinian group.
(Feb. – “Al Hayat Al Jadidah" newspaper headquarters was fired upon by unknown gunmen in Albireh city (near Ramallah). The newspaper’s editor Hafez Barghouti said that two gunmen opened fire on the door of the printing press and the windows of the headquarters from the garden of a nearby house, at about 12:15am, then they fled, and no one was hurt. The newspaper headquarters was fired upon also on 26 December 2008.
(Feb. 20) - “Al Hayat Al Jadidah" newspaper was fired upon by unknown gunmen in Albireh city. An official in the newspaper said that unknown gunmen fired on the headquarters at 11:15 pm from a relatively long distance. No one was hurt or injured. This was the third time in which the building was fired upon in the last three months.
(Feb. 22) - Jordanian “Alhaqiqah Aldawleya" newspaper correspondent Qais Omar Darwish (aka “Abu Samra") was arrested, by the Palestinian Preventive Security Service in Qalqilya city. Abu Samra said that he was summoned by the service the previous day. He went to their headquarters in Qalqilya at 10 am, and he was investigated five times about his work as a journalist and whether he is working for Aqsa TV, as well as personal and general matters. He was forced to open his email for them. He was released on February 24 in the afternoon.
(Feb. 24) - Asia local TV headquarters was raided by the Israeli occupation forces in the old city of Nablus (WB). Its director Ayman Alqadiri said that a large group of soldiers stormed his home and the TV headquarters in the same building at 12:30 am, and detained his wife and children in a room, while he, his brother and two of the TV workers were detained in another room until 5:15 am. The soldiers closed all the transmitters after breaking into the headquarters, and used the apartment and the headquarters, which are located on the fourth floor of the building, as a point to control the surrounding area. Asia TV was established in 1997
