His Excellency Yasser Abed Rabbo
Information Minister
Palestinian Authority
Palestinian Territories
Fax : +972 2 2954043
Vienna, 12 October 2001
Your Excellency
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, strongly condemns the latest campaign to harass and intimidate the media by the Palestinian Authority.
According to IPI’s sources, five journalists working for the news organisations Reuters, Associated Press Television, the Abu Dhabi Satellite Television Station and Agence-France Presse, were briefly arrested on 14 September. Four days later, on 18 September, new restrictive regulations for Palestinian broadcasters were introduced. As a result, the media were instructed by the Palestinian police not to broadcast news items concerning calls for a general strike, nationalist activities, demonstrations or security news without the permission of the police or national security services.
Furthermore, in a series of incidents on 8 October, at least four journalists were beaten during demonstrations in Gaza, a cameraman with French television station TF 1 was briefly arrested and a BBC reporter’s cassette was confiscated in the West Bank. On the same day, other journalists in Gaza were prevented from covering the demonstrations against US bombings of Afghanistan. Access to Gaza has been forbidden to foreigners, including foreign journalists, since 9 October; allegedly because the Palestinian Authority is unable to guarantee their safety.
IPI recalls that, as recently as 18 September, several news outlets reported on how Your Excellency publicly regretted confiscating video tapes and photographs from Western news agencies and promised to guarantee the safety of journalists and oppose censorship. At the time, you were also quoted as saying that the Palestinian Authority “sincerely regrets any interference with the ability of the international press to conduct its work.”
Regarding the incarceration and manhandling of journalists, bans on reporting, the confiscation of reporting material and restrictions of access for journalists, IPI believes these are gross violations of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, as guaranteed by article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We urge Your Excellency to live up to your promises and ensure that the media are allowed to carry out their profession without further harassment.
We thank you for your attention.
Johann P. Fritz
Director
