(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Israeli Chief of Staff Shaul Moffaz, RSF protested Israeli soldiers’ shooting at Sagui Bashan’s car in Netzarim (Gaza Strip). Bashan is a journalist for Israel’s second television channel. “Whatever their nationality, journalists should be able to move freely around the different territories without putting their lives at risk,” stated […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Israeli Chief of Staff Shaul Moffaz, RSF protested Israeli soldiers’ shooting at Sagui Bashan’s car in Netzarim (Gaza Strip). Bashan is a journalist for Israel’s second television channel. “Whatever their nationality, journalists should be able to move freely around the different territories without putting their lives at risk,” stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “We are requesting that you carry out an impartial investigation in order to determine the exact circumstances of this incident and take disciplinary measures against those responsible.” RSF called attention to that fact that since the start of the second Intifada, the organisation has recorded forty-six incidents in which journalists have been wounded by bullets. After carrying out investigations in the field, RSF concluded that in a majority of cases responsibility for the shootings lay with the Israeli army.
According to information received by RSF, on 14 February 2002, Bashan was leaving the Gaza Strip, where he had spent a part of the evening covering the Israeli army incursion into the area. He was stopped at a military barricade close to Netzarim at about 10:00 p.m. (local time). After showing his press card to the soldiers, he asked to see the order from a superior officer stating that the area was a “closed military territory”. When the soldiers told him they did not have such a document, the journalist drove off. After he had driven a few metres, the soldiers opened fire on his car. Bashan was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel. The journalist was admitted to Soroka Hospital, in the town of Beersheva, during the night.
Since the beginning of the second Intifada, on 29 September 2000, RSF has recorded forty-six cases of journalists injured by bullets. Certain injuries have been very serious. Following in-the-field investigations, RSF found that the Israeli army was responsible in the majority of cases. The organisation urged the army to conduct impartial investigations into the incidents. In mid-December 2001, fifteen months after the first confrontations, the Israeli Ministry of Defence distributed the findings of its investigations. Only nine of the wounded journalists were mentioned in the document, which exonerated Tsahal (the Israeli Defence Forces) in all but one case (see IFEX alerts of 3 January 2002 and 24 December 2001).
