(RSF/IFEX) – In a 7 September 1999 letter to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, RSF protested the arrest of six Palestinian journalists on 5 September near an Israeli settlement in Hebron in the West Bank. RSF voiced its “alarm over crackdowns aimed at journalists in order to prevent them from performing their job, which constitutes a […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 7 September 1999 letter to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, RSF
protested the arrest of six Palestinian journalists on 5 September near an
Israeli settlement in Hebron in the West Bank. RSF voiced its “alarm over
crackdowns aimed at journalists in order to prevent them from performing
their job, which constitutes a blatant infringement of the right to freely
inform” and added that “it is highly necessary that the police and the army
receive clear orders to respect press freedom and the free circulation of
information.”
These journalists, most of whom work for international news agencies, were
taking pictures of bulldozers in the settlement. Their credentials were
confiscated.
Background Information
On 28 May, a dozen journalists were beaten by Israeli police and two of them
were arrested, while covering a demonstration by Palestinians at a
settlement site in Ras Al-Amud in East Jerusalem (see IFEX alert of 28 May
1999). On 16 April, a cameraman for an Abu Dhabi TV station was severely
wounded by a shot in the back fired by Israeli troops (see IFEX alert of 19
April 1999). In 1998, eleven journalists were reportedly injured by Tsahal
(Israeli Armed Forces) shots.
