Army chief orders commanders to ensure safety of journalists
New York, July 27, 2001–Responding to concerns repeatedly expressed by the Committee to Protect Journalists and other international press freedom groups, Israeli military authorities have ordered field commanders to protect journalists who cover street clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev informed CPJ via e-mail today that Israeli Defense…
CAMERAMAN COMES UNDER MACHINE GUN FIRE IN HEBRON
New York, June 29, 2001—A free-lance cameraman working with the Associated Press Television News (APTN) in the West Bank city of Hebron came under heavy machine gun fire while riding in his car on Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists has learned. At around dusk on June 26, Hazem Bader, a veteran Hebron-based cameraman who…
CPJ Releases Latest Research on Shootings of Journalists in Israel and the Occupied Territories
June 20, 2001 — CPJ today released its latest research into the cases of journalists wounded by Israeli gunfire while covering unrest in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since last September. The research, which was presented last week to Israeli ambassador to the U.S. David Ivry by a six-person CPJ delegation, lists the cases…
CPJ Delegation Meets With Israeli Ambassador Committee Expresses Deep Concern about Shootings of Journalists
June 11, 2001 – A CPJ delegation met with Israeli ambassador to the United States David Ivry to express its deep concern about the cases of 15 journalists wounded by Israeli gunfire while covering unrest in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since last September. CPJ expressed its concern to the ambassador that in some…
Newsweek reporters detained by militant faction
New York, May 31, 2001 — CPJ is concerned about the recent detention of two journalists from Newsweek magazine by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. On the early afternoon of May 29, according to international news reports, Newsweek Jerusalem bureau chief Joshua Hammer and photographer Gary Knight were interviewing Palestinian militants in the town…
TV journalist shot by Israeli forces in Gaza
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to protest the wounding of journalist Layla Odeh by IDF gunfire last Friday in the Gaza Strip. At about 1 p.m. on April 20, Odeh, a correspondent for the United Arab Emirates-based Abu Dhabi TV, was shot by Israeli troops while she and two colleagues were on assignment in the town of Rafah. At the time of the shooting, the journalists told CPJ, they were interviewing and filming local residents whose homes had been destroyed by Israeli forces.
Arafat allows Al-Jazeera bureau to reopen
New York, March 23, 2001 — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat permitted the West Bank bureau of the Qatar-based satellite news channel Al-Jazeera to reopen on Friday after a three-day closure, according to press reports and CPJ sources at the station. Acting on orders from Arafat’s office, Palestinian National Authority (PNA) security personnel closed the station’s…
Security forces close Al-Jazeera bureau for “insulting” Arafat
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wishes to protest the Palestinian National Authority’s recent closure of the Ramallah bureau of the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera reported today that PNA security authorities, acting on orders from Your Excellency’s office, closed the station’s Ramallah bureau yesterday 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 Your Excellency.
Attacks on the Press 2000: Middle East and North Africa Analysis
ALTHOUGH RIGHTS TO FREE EXPRESSION AND PRESS FREEDOM are enshrined in national constitutions from Algeria to Yemen, governments found many practical ways to restrict these freedoms. State ownership of the media, censorship, legal harassment, intimidation, and imprisonment of journalists were again among the favored tools of repression and control. In Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria,…