MADA's legal unit said that the journalists' detention and the review of press material without a warrant is a clear violation of the Palestinian Amended law.
(MADA/IFEX) – The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the detention of Quds TV correspondent Mus’ab Alkhatib (Alkhseeb) and Pal Media cameraman Hazim Al-Baledi, by the Palestinian Preventive Security Services (PSS). The incident took place on 14 June 2010, in the city of Tulkarem in West Bank.
Alkhatib said that he went with Al-Baledi to interview the Palestinian Legislative Council member from the Hamas bloc, Fathi Qraawi, about Palestinian reconciliation between Fateh and Hamas. When they left his office, members of the PSS forced them to go to their headquarters in Tulkarem. Alkhatib added: “When we went there, they interrogated us about the content of the interview, and they downloaded the entire interview, and examined all the papers that we had, and then they released us.”
MADA’s legal unit lawyer Sana’ Aranki said that the journalists’ detention and the review of the press material without a warrant is a clear violation of the Palestinian Amended law. Article 11 paragraph 2 of that law states: “It is unlawful to arrest, search, imprison, restrict the freedom, or prevent the movement of any person, except by judicial order in accordance with the provisions of the law”.
Alkhatib was previously detained by the security forces on 9 March, when he was interviewing journalist Mustafa Sabri about the Palestinian Syndicate election in the city of Qalqilia.
In a separate case, MADA denounced the French broadcasting council’s decision to stop Aqsa TV from broadcasting. The administration of Nour Sat, which broadcasts Aqsa TV, said that they would stop broadcasting the channel 48 hours after the decision was made. MADA demanded that the French broadcasting council reverse its decision, which is a violation of freedom of expression.
