Palestine Report - A slap in the face of the media
A slap in the face of the media
by Ahmad Sub Laban
"IS THIS the Arabiya office?" This was the question five armed men used to gain entrance to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya Satellite Channel office in Ramallah on September 13.
"'Yes, this is the Arabiya office'," Qassem Khatib, an Arabiya employee, had answered. "Right after the words left my lips," he recalls, "three of the five men aimed their guns at my face. Of the last two, one carried a sword and the other a stick. When the other two employees at the time heard the racket, they rushed to the reception desk. The masked men forced us into one of the rooms, where we were held," tells Khatib. "Then we heard the sound of breaking glass and equipment being destroyed."
While they were ransacking the office, says Khatib, the masked men told the employees that this would be their last warning. The next time, they said, things would be "different."
The men finally left after having broken a few computers, destroyed some furniture and smashed all the glass in the office. But the physical destruction was nothing compared to the intimidation intended by the attack. It constituted, say professionals and officials, a slap in the face of Palestinian press freedom, and Palestinian press agencies, the ministry of information as well as President Arafat united in strongly condemning the attack and its perpetrators.
Arafat immediately called the three journalists and has ordered a thorough investigation. According to Al Arabiya correspondent Hadeel Wahdan, Arafat was incensed about the incident. The Palestinian information ministry strongly condemned the attack, calling it a "violation of every rule and law in Palestine" and a direct assault on the freedom of expression. It was an attack that only "served those parties hostile to the Palestinian cause."
Hani Al Masri, General Director of Print and Publications at the information ministry, says the attack on Al Arabiya was designed to "limit the freedom of press and expression and contradicts all the principles - political, intellectual and factional pluralism, freedom of expression and positive competition - that we are trying to enforce in the Palestinian arena." Pluralism, he says, is a spur for development and without it the Palestinian people will never be able to achieve its national goals.
For years, the Palestinian media has not only suffered from the occupation - in the Aqsa Intifada alone, 11 Palestinian and foreign journalists have been killed in the line of duty and journalists have been unable to move freely from place to place, have been beaten and have had their press cards revoked. Palestinian and other journalists have also been harassed by Palestinian security services, groups and individuals.
The very next day after the Al Arabiya attack, on September 14, a number of armed persons intercepted a vehicle belonging to the distributors of Al Ayyam newspaper in Gaza City and confiscated a number of copies of the newspaper. According to an investigation by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), four gunmen forced the driver of the newspaper's vehicle and his two colleagues to a secluded spot where two individuals in police uniform were waiting. They claimed to be members of the customs department and confiscated some 1400 copies of the newspaper. The customs department later denied any connection to the incident. The attackers have not been identified.
Al Jazeera Satellite Channel has been raided several times by the Palestinian security services, the most serious incident occurring on March 21, 2001 when the Palestinian Authority closed down their office in Ramallah claiming that the channel had broadcast demeaning pictures of Arafat. According to Walid Omari, Al Jazeera's chief correspondent in the Palestinian territories, a security force came and shut down the office without handing them an official order. "They didn't even say what security service they were from," he remembers. The office was reopened after it was confirmed that no official order had been handed down for the office's closure.
In another incident involving Al Jazeera, the satellite channel's correspondent Seif Eddin Shahin was arrested by the intelligence services on January 6, 2003. He had interviewed a member of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who'd claimed that the brigades were responsible for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that had killed 13 Israelis. The Aqsa Brigades denied that they had carried out the bombing, and Shahin was arrested. He was released following an 18-hour detention. A year earlier, Shahin had been attacked by three men in front of Al Jazeera's office in Gaza. He suspects he was attacked because of his coverage of the bloody events in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp on December 20, 2001, where Palestinian police shot dead seven young men.
"The lack of laws and regulations," says Masri, "and the absence of concerted efforts to enforce the rule of law have led to this kind of direct intervention from individuals and certain security apparatuses against the media in Palestine. Now we are seeing that even powerful families or individuals sometimes interfere to ban the publishing of news items or investigations, claiming that it is disrespectful to prevailing traditions and concepts in the society. This kind of intervention is on the verge of becoming a regular phenomenon, I am afraid."
The Palestinian media is often hindered by the security services, says the head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Naim Toubasi, and it is worrying. "Attacks on journalists are a disgrace. There are certain things, such as the protection of sources, that are sacrosanct for journalists," he adds.
One problem, says Toubasi, is that Palestinian journalists don't band together. "What is needed now is for journalists to stand together under the umbrella of a strong union that can protect Palestinian journalists from attacks." Without this, he continues, journalists will remain vulnerable. He rejects the accusation that the syndicate is weak, but says it lacks support from journalists themselves.
Masri, however, says there must be certain restrictions on the press. "There is no absolute freedom anywhere in the world because complete freedom would mean chaos. The concept of freedom," he says, "includes its own restriction: your freedom ends when another's begins." In the Palestinian arena, says Masri, there are subjects that cannot be touched including issues of national security and national unity.
But, he adds, "the enforcement of these restrictions cannot and should not be left to an employee or group of employees in the Authority or to a political faction. The laws should be clear and accurate and allow no room for misinterpretation or confusion."
The perpetrators of the attack on Al Arabiya remain unknown. According to Khatib, the men told him they were from the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, but the group has denied any responsibility for the incident and has opened its own investigation to find out who used its name. Speculation in the press has centered on Al Arabiya's broadcast of the deliberations over the formation of the new Palestinian cabinet, although nothing has been confirmed. Meanwhile, both employees of Al Arabiya and officials have their suspicions as to the identity of the perpetrators, but none were prepared to go public with them. -Published September 24, 2003©Palestine Report
by Ahmad Sub Laban
"IS THIS the Arabiya office?" This was the question five armed men used to gain entrance to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya Satellite Channel office in Ramallah on September 13.
"'Yes, this is the Arabiya office'," Qassem Khatib, an Arabiya employee, had answered. "Right after the words left my lips," he recalls, "three of the five men aimed their guns at my face. Of the last two, one carried a sword and the other a stick. When the other two employees at the time heard the racket, they rushed to the reception desk. The masked men forced us into one of the rooms, where we were held," tells Khatib. "Then we heard the sound of breaking glass and equipment being destroyed."
While they were ransacking the office, says Khatib, the masked men told the employees that this would be their last warning. The next time, they said, things would be "different."
The men finally left after having broken a few computers, destroyed some furniture and smashed all the glass in the office. But the physical destruction was nothing compared to the intimidation intended by the attack. It constituted, say professionals and officials, a slap in the face of Palestinian press freedom, and Palestinian press agencies, the ministry of information as well as President Arafat united in strongly condemning the attack and its perpetrators.
Arafat immediately called the three journalists and has ordered a thorough investigation. According to Al Arabiya correspondent Hadeel Wahdan, Arafat was incensed about the incident. The Palestinian information ministry strongly condemned the attack, calling it a "violation of every rule and law in Palestine" and a direct assault on the freedom of expression. It was an attack that only "served those parties hostile to the Palestinian cause."
Hani Al Masri, General Director of Print and Publications at the information ministry, says the attack on Al Arabiya was designed to "limit the freedom of press and expression and contradicts all the principles - political, intellectual and factional pluralism, freedom of expression and positive competition - that we are trying to enforce in the Palestinian arena." Pluralism, he says, is a spur for development and without it the Palestinian people will never be able to achieve its national goals.
For years, the Palestinian media has not only suffered from the occupation - in the Aqsa Intifada alone, 11 Palestinian and foreign journalists have been killed in the line of duty and journalists have been unable to move freely from place to place, have been beaten and have had their press cards revoked. Palestinian and other journalists have also been harassed by Palestinian security services, groups and individuals.
The very next day after the Al Arabiya attack, on September 14, a number of armed persons intercepted a vehicle belonging to the distributors of Al Ayyam newspaper in Gaza City and confiscated a number of copies of the newspaper. According to an investigation by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), four gunmen forced the driver of the newspaper's vehicle and his two colleagues to a secluded spot where two individuals in police uniform were waiting. They claimed to be members of the customs department and confiscated some 1400 copies of the newspaper. The customs department later denied any connection to the incident. The attackers have not been identified.
Al Jazeera Satellite Channel has been raided several times by the Palestinian security services, the most serious incident occurring on March 21, 2001 when the Palestinian Authority closed down their office in Ramallah claiming that the channel had broadcast demeaning pictures of Arafat. According to Walid Omari, Al Jazeera's chief correspondent in the Palestinian territories, a security force came and shut down the office without handing them an official order. "They didn't even say what security service they were from," he remembers. The office was reopened after it was confirmed that no official order had been handed down for the office's closure.
In another incident involving Al Jazeera, the satellite channel's correspondent Seif Eddin Shahin was arrested by the intelligence services on January 6, 2003. He had interviewed a member of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who'd claimed that the brigades were responsible for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that had killed 13 Israelis. The Aqsa Brigades denied that they had carried out the bombing, and Shahin was arrested. He was released following an 18-hour detention. A year earlier, Shahin had been attacked by three men in front of Al Jazeera's office in Gaza. He suspects he was attacked because of his coverage of the bloody events in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp on December 20, 2001, where Palestinian police shot dead seven young men.
"The lack of laws and regulations," says Masri, "and the absence of concerted efforts to enforce the rule of law have led to this kind of direct intervention from individuals and certain security apparatuses against the media in Palestine. Now we are seeing that even powerful families or individuals sometimes interfere to ban the publishing of news items or investigations, claiming that it is disrespectful to prevailing traditions and concepts in the society. This kind of intervention is on the verge of becoming a regular phenomenon, I am afraid."
The Palestinian media is often hindered by the security services, says the head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Naim Toubasi, and it is worrying. "Attacks on journalists are a disgrace. There are certain things, such as the protection of sources, that are sacrosanct for journalists," he adds.
One problem, says Toubasi, is that Palestinian journalists don't band together. "What is needed now is for journalists to stand together under the umbrella of a strong union that can protect Palestinian journalists from attacks." Without this, he continues, journalists will remain vulnerable. He rejects the accusation that the syndicate is weak, but says it lacks support from journalists themselves.
Masri, however, says there must be certain restrictions on the press. "There is no absolute freedom anywhere in the world because complete freedom would mean chaos. The concept of freedom," he says, "includes its own restriction: your freedom ends when another's begins." In the Palestinian arena, says Masri, there are subjects that cannot be touched including issues of national security and national unity.
But, he adds, "the enforcement of these restrictions cannot and should not be left to an employee or group of employees in the Authority or to a political faction. The laws should be clear and accurate and allow no room for misinterpretation or confusion."
The perpetrators of the attack on Al Arabiya remain unknown. According to Khatib, the men told him they were from the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, but the group has denied any responsibility for the incident and has opened its own investigation to find out who used its name. Speculation in the press has centered on Al Arabiya's broadcast of the deliberations over the formation of the new Palestinian cabinet, although nothing has been confirmed. Meanwhile, both employees of Al Arabiya and officials have their suspicions as to the identity of the perpetrators, but none were prepared to go public with them. -Published September 24, 2003©Palestine Report
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