H. E. Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister of Israel
Prime Minister’s Office
Jerusalem
Israel
Vienna, 21 June 1996
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), is most concerned about the recent seizure of a Lebanese journalist in Israeli-occupied south Lebanon and his continued detention in Israel.
Ali, Dia who works for the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Beirut daily As-Safir and the Lebanese Future TV, was summoned on 13 June 1996 to the headquarters of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA) in the town of Marjayoun. He was then handed over to the Israeli armed forces and taken to Israel for interrogation. We understand that he has not been seen or heard from since. On 18 June an Israeli army spokesman confirmed that Mr. Dia was being held somewhere in Israel and said that he was suspected of collaborating with Hezbollah guerrilla forces.
We regard the seizure and continued detention of Mr. Dia, a civilian non-combatant, to be a flagrant violation of the right to “seek, receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as guaranteed by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and fear that he is being detained and interrogated in an attempt to coerce him into revealing information he has gathered while carrying out legitimate activities as a journalist.
IPI, a global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 85 countries, urges Your Excellency to ensure that Ali Dia is released immediately and unconditionally and that he is allowed to exercise his profession without further harassment.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director