18 - 24 April 2002
Issue No.582
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 18 - 24 April 2002 Issue No.582 |
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Right to report
The Arab Journalists' Union condemned Israel's latest aggression and re-occupation of nearly the entire West Bank, reports Khaled Dawoud
Participants in the two-day Arab Journalists' Union meeting in Beirut on April 12, chaired by Al-Ahram editor-in-chief, Ibrahim Nafie, condemned Washington's failure to react to the massacres taking place in the West Bank and they called upon the United States to apply international legitimacy laws to all aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The statement also affirmed the Union's opposition to any possible US strike against Iraq, and called upon Arab governments to use all possible means, including an oil embargo, to pressure the United States to change its policy towards the Middle East conflict and blind bias for Israel.
As for freedom of the press, the Union called upon Arab governments to take all necessary measures to widen freedom of expression and encourage political participation in public affairs. The statement also appealed to Arab journalists to rise above inter-Arab differences and to concentrate their effort at this stage on confronting Israel's vicious attack against the Palestinian people.
The same day, the Paris-based organisation, Reporters Sans Frontier (RSF), issued a statement calling for the release of three Palestinian journalists arrested by Israeli authorities after their re-occupation of the West Bank on 29 March. RSF called on Israeli army chief General Shaul Moffaz to release three Arab journalists held by the army for more than two weeks. RSF secretary-general, Robert Ménard, said the three -- Ahmed Assi, of the London-based Arab TV station ANN, Ashraf Farraj (chief editor) and Jalal Hameid (journalist) both of the privately-owned Bethlehem TV station Al-Rouah, had apparently just being "doing their job as journalists." He noted in a letter to General Moffaz that no explanation had been given for their detention and that RSF was especially concerned because Assi's whereabouts was unknown.
After a fact-finding mission to Israel from 5 to 7 April, RSF said it had counted about 40 cases of obstruction of press freedom since the start of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, either through journalists being wounded, arrested, expelled or threatened. It accused the Israeli army of pursuing "a deliberate policy of intimidating journalists."
RSF also mentioned the case of Atta Iweisat, a photographer working for the Gamma photo agency, who was arrested in Ramallah on the morning of 2 April while in the company of foreign journalists. He was forced to kneel handcuffed in pouring rain in the middle of the street. Ahmed Assi was kneeling and handcuffed, a few metres away with some other arrested people. The prisoners were then blindfolded and taken to the Beitunia detention centre, near Ramallah, where they were interrogated. Iweisat was freed at around 4pm but he did not know what happened to Assi.
Farraj and Hameid and several other journalists were arrested by the Israeli army at the press centre in Bethlehem on 3 April. According to Hamdi Farraj, head of Al-Rouah TV, Israeli soldiers destroyed equipment and confiscated film cassettes and portable phones. The other journalists were freed soon afterwards, but Farraj and Hameid were taken to the Beitunia centre where hundreds of Palestinians are reportedly being held.
Since the start of the current offensive, the Israeli army has arrested several Palestinian journalists. Some have been humiliated, while others have been threatened or had their equipment confiscated. Israeli soldiers have also occupied the offices of several local and Arab TV stations. Four Israeli soldiers smashed down the door of Abu Dhabi TV and Nile TV in Ramallah on 8 April. Asef Hmaidi, Abu Dhabi TV's correspondent in the city, said the soldiers ordered the journalists to lie on the floor. "They damaged everything, the desks, doors, chairs, they checked everything and then, they took the mobile phones from us," he said.
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