British freelance journalist and documentary maker Paul Martin was arrested on Sunday 14 February upon arriving at a court house in Gaza City to provide evidence in a trial.
Martin, who has worked for the BBC and the London-based The Times newspaper, will be detained for 15 days of interrogation, according to West Bank-based Ma’an News Agency.
Speaking to IPI, George Hale of Ma’an News Agency said Martin had been in court to testify on behalf of a Palestinian gunman whom he had interviewed during the January 2009 Hamas-Israel conflict. The unnamed militant had been accused of collaborating with Israel. Hale said he had interviewed a Palestinian journalist (who wished not to be named) who said that when Martin arrived at the court house, the court reporter suddenly announced that he had done something against the law, and he was promptly arrested.
On Monday 15 February, Hamas police spokesman Ehab Al-Ghussein said, “We have confessions that the British journalist committed offences against Palestinian law, and that harms the security of the country.”
The Times stated that Martin began working in Gaza in 2007 when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. He co-owns World News & Features, which supplies video material from numerous conflicts to news organisations including BBC World and CNN. Martin was detained by Hamas twice before, in 2007, for filming demonstrations in the Strip according to an account he wrote himself for The Times.
According to Ma’an, Martin is being held in Gaza’s central prison.
“Although it is not yet clear exactly why Paul Martin has been imprisoned, IPI is concerned by his arrest and the intimidating effect it could have on journalists covering events in Gaza,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “No journalist should be arrested because of their work, and if the authorities in Gaza are unable to provide evidence in court justifying his detention, Mr. Martin should be released immediately.”