Palestinian journalists face restrictions on free speech
Palestinian reconciliation is futile if freedom of opinion and freedom of the press are not respected, and journalists are silenced.
In less than a week, journalists have faced various levels of restrictions on carrying out their professional duties in Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Ramallah in three different incidents. The violators included Israelis, Palestinian unionists and Palestinian police.
In East Jerusalem, a TV interview on “Good Morning Jerusalem” — which has been airing every Friday for years — was being taped at the privately owned Pal Media studios on the Mount of Olives on June 6 when Israeli soldiers raided the studio, arrested studio director Ibrahim Qleibo, show host Mona Abu Assab and guest Ala’a Haddad, a member of the Prisoners' Council in Jerusalem. They were released a few hours later, which added to the accusation by Palestinians that the aim of the Israelis was simply to stop the airing of the interview. A report on WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, quoted Assab as saying the Palestinian Broadcasting Corp. (PBC) network was forced to end her live show at gunpoint. Israeli spokeswoman Lubra Samri said the raid on PBC was part of "an investigation into the content of its programs.”
This particular program was discussing various efforts inside and outside Palestine to show solidarity with Jerusalem and its people. No calls for violence were uttered on the program, and Israel has not made any specific allegations about who made any inciting statements if any, and what they said.
The second incident was not as violent. The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate in the Gaza Strip decided to question one of its own members for a report he produced for an Arab media outlet. The journalist, Mohammed Othman, who also writes for Al-Monitor, had written an article 10 weeks ago about incest and other bizarre sexual acts in the Gaza Strip. The report included the story of a bride running away and sleeping in a cemetery because her husband wanted to share her with his father. The journalist did not identify the individuals and spoke with psychologists to explain the phenomena. Othman told Al-Monitor that the syndicate complained to him that stories like that gave the Gaza Strip a negative image, and that patriotic journalists should not air Gaza’s dirty laundry.
