(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 22 March 2001 letter to President Yasser Arafat, CPJ protested the Palestinian National Authority’s (PNA) recent closure of the Ramallah bureau of the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera. On 22 March, Al-Jazeera reported that PNA security authorities, acting on orders from the president’s office, closed the station’s Ramallah bureau on 21 March, […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 22 March 2001 letter to President Yasser Arafat, CPJ protested the Palestinian National Authority’s (PNA) recent closure of the Ramallah bureau of the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
On 22 March, Al-Jazeera reported that PNA security authorities, acting on orders from the president’s office, closed the station’s Ramallah bureau on 21 March, and barred its staff from entering the premises. The move apparently resulted from a current Al-Jazeera promotional trailer that advertised a forthcoming episode in a documentary series about the Lebanese civil war. PNA officials apparently felt that the trailer was insulting to the president.
On 19 March, PNA security authorities contacted the bureau to demand that Al-Jazeera withdraw the trailer within two hours, or else face closure. Shortly afterward, Al-Jazeera reported, security officials visited the bureau and told staff that their office was closed indefinitely. On Wednesday 21 March, Palestinian security forces took up positions in front of the bureau and prevented staff from entering.
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