Hamas attacks Gaza news bureaus; Yemen ousts reporters

[shira]

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, March 19, 2011- Hamas security forces raided media bureaus, assaulted journalists, and confiscated journalistic materials in Gaza today, punctuating another day of anti-press attacks in the restive region. In Yemen, authorities expelled two Al-Jazeera correspondents, continuing a pattern of ousting international reporters. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns these attacks on journalists and the efforts of authorities to prevent the world from seeing and reading about crucial international affairs.

Following a demonstration in Gaza City, Hamas security personnel stormed the bureaus of Reuters, CNN, and the Japanese news channel NHK, attacking journalists, confiscating tapes, and destroying equipment, CNN and others reported. Security forces hit a Reuters employee with an iron bar, threatened to throw another out of a window, and smashed a television and computer keyboard, Crispian Balmer, the news organization's bureau chief for Israel and Palestinian Territories, told CNN and The Associated Press. Security personnel also searched CNN's offices for footage of today's demonstration, CNN said, and confiscated an NHK tape, according to NHK Jerusalem bureau chief Disuke Iijima.

"Today's attack on media offices and working journalists in Gaza is a brazen attempt to censor the news," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "Hamas must understand that violence against media, who are the eyes and ears of the people, will only erode its own legitimacy - both domestically and internationally."

Following the raid, journalists held a sit-in to denounce the government's treatment of media. This is the second attack on media in Gaza in less than a week by Hamas security personnel. On Tuesday, Hamas security forces attacked journalists as they were covering demonstrations. Multiple journalists were injured, and one was reportedly stabbed.

more...
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EGUA-8F7QGK?OpenDocument

[shira]

1. A WARNING TO JOURNALISTS FROM HAMAS

Also, in recent days, Reuters journalists in Gaza were viciously assaulted by Hamas government operatives, including being pistol-whipped, as a warning not to step out of line. On Saturday, around 10 armed men from the internal security services of Hamas entered Reuters’ office in Gaza, struck several Reuters journalists with metal bars and threatened to throw another out of the window of the high-rise block. The group also smashed a television set and video equipment before leaving.

The attack is seen as a warning to Reuters and other international news agencies in Gaza to make sure they continue to report pro-Hamas propaganda (in other words to vastly exaggerate the suffering of the Gazans while often fabricating the misdeeds of Israel).

The same group, several of whom were carrying pistols, also forcibly entered the nearby offices of U.S. broadcaster CNN and the Japanese station NHK. They seized videotape at NHK.

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001178.html

More on Reuters...
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/Reuters.htm

[Tunkamerica]

2. are you serious? is this michael savage? bill o'reilly?

[shira]

3. Journalists' feedback

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/JournalistsFeedback.htm

[Tunkamerica]

5. david frum, a bunch of Israeli journalists, a bunch of wall street journal guys,

someone from China State Radio...

great, you made your point

[shira]

6. As well as the Guardian, CNN, NYT, and Reuters. n/t

[tcaudilllg]

4. Al-Jazeera is apparently a pro-democratic propaganda org now

since being bought a pro-democratic businessman.

[shira]

7. Hamas Targets Journalists: Media, Human Rights Groups Silent

In the past few days, at least eight journalists were severly beaten with clubs or summoned for questioning while doing their job in the Hamas-cointrolled Gaza Strip when Hamas policemen in civilian clothes began attacking demonstrators.

Other journalists have had their cameras and notepads confiscated while covering various events that were deemed "provocative" by the Hamas authorities.

Hamas believes that intimidation of the media will prevent the truth from coming out. Like most Arab dictatorships, Hamas does not tolerate stories that reflect negatively on its radical regime in the Gaza Strip - the reason the Hamas government has been cracking down on local journalists who fail to toe the line.

Although some of the journalists who were assaulted work with international news organizations, many of these foreign media outlets ignored the story, apparently out of fear of retribution by the Hamas authorities.

These journalists who chose to defy Hamas should be supported not only by their foreign colleagues, but also by Western governments and human rights organizations.

Otherwise, the day will come when the world will never know what is really happening inside Hamas's Gaza Strip.

more...
http://www.hudson-ny.org/1975/hamas-targets-journalists

[Alamuti Lotus]

8. Hamas denied involvement, condemned the attacks, and arrested the imposters

try again..

[oberliner]

9. Gaza journalist: Hamas threatened to kill me

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip said Saturday that she received threats of violence from Hamas authorities over her participation in demonstrations.

The journalist told Ma'an that Hamas police threatened her and her son if she wrote anything on Facebook or her blog about the pro-unity protests that have been dispersed violently throughout Gaza in recent days.

She said authorities sent the head of her family a text message saying, "We will kill her the next time she blogs against us or uses Facebook to organize anything ... If you won't do it, we'll do it for you."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=370192

[Alamuti Lotus]

10. different incident; no less deplorable for that

I don't completely understand the hard-line stance against 'reconciliation', except that Fat'h these days is basically just a US/Israeli tool and isn't fit to shake a stick at, let alone cooperate with in a government. But, that's a reason to start taking out high-ranking bureaucrats with carefully placed sniper rifles, not harassing journalists with misplaced idealism.