An Al Jazeera camera crew was attacked [March 30] when it went to the town of Sakhnin to cover the Land Day events there. The assailants, supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, threw water bottles and other objects at them, causing some injuries. The justification for the attack was the claim that the network has been broadcasting spurious accounts of what is happening in Syria. They felt that its coverage of the uprising there is biased and one-sided.
This outbreak of violence against journalists didn’t end with the attack on Al Jazeera, either. The assailants went on to attack another crew, this one from Israel’s Channel 1, for the same reason: the media’s perceived support for the anti-Assad insurgents. In that second incident, one of the crew members was struck in the head and required treatment at the local clinic.
