Journalists committee chides PA for press intimidation
By Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has joined the Foreign Press Association in Israel in protesting the Palestinian Authority's confiscation of footage showing Palestinians celebrating after the terrorist attacks in the United States two weeks ago.
In a letter of complaint sent to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat last week, the CPJ wrote: "On September 11, according to international press reports, Palestinian police and armed gunmen prevented several news photographers and cameramen from documenting events in the West Bank city of Nablus, where groups of Palestinians celebrated the attacks by honking horns and firing live ammunition rounds into the air.
"According to The Associated Press, Palestinian security authorities summoned a free-lance cameraman working for the AP that same day and warned him not to air his footage of the events. Members of the Tanzim militia, affiliated with Your Excellency's Fatah organization, also issued warnings that the AP cameraman interpreted as threatening."
The letter also cited an incident on September 14, when Palestinian police "briefly detained several photographers and cameramen working with international news agencies in the Gaza Strip and confiscated their equipment. The journalists had been covering a rally to commemorate a Palestinian suicide bomber that the militant Islamic group Hamas staged in the Nusseirat refugee camp. During the rally, one protester reportedly held up a portrait of Osama bin Laden."
According to the letter, signed by the organization's executive director Ann Cooper, although the PNA returned the journalists' camera equipment that weekend, some of their video footage had been erased, and the AP reported that its video was missing 45 seconds of footage. Another photographer told the CPJ that images stored on his digital camera had been erased.
The CPJ bills itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to monitor abuses against the press and promote press freedom around the world.
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