Foreign Correspondents in Israel Complain of Intimidation

[alsame]

Foreign Correspondents in Israel Complain of Intimidation

As the death toll mounts and passions spike, the Foreign Press Association in Israel condemned on Wednesday what it called “deliberate official and unofficial incitement against journalists” who are reporting on the fighting in Gaza. That includes “forcible attempts to prevent journalists and TV crews from carrying out their news assignments,” the association said.

The statement was released as some Israelis, apparently incensed by what they see as reporting on the Israeli offensive in Gaza that is overly sympathetic to Palestinians, have started to take their frustration out directly on foreign correspondents.

<snip>

The press association also complained on Wednesday about an Israeli military attack the day before on the offices of Al Jazeera “on the 11th floor of a known commercial center” in Gaza City. Although the Israel Defense Forces apologized and promised to investigate the attack, it took place just one day after Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Liberman, called the network “the mainstay of the Hamas propaganda system” that “has abandoned even the semblance of a reliable media outlet, and broadcasts, to Gaza and the world, anti-Israeli incitement, lies, provocations and encouragement to terrorists.”

Mr. Liberman said Israel was re-evaluating the status of Al Jazeera, “with the intention of preventing it from operating in Israel.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/world/middleeast/foreign-correspondents-in-israel-are-targets-of-intimidation.html

[libodem]

1. I'd say intimidation

Would be the loving supportive side of being a journalist.

These days they shoot reporters, don't they?

Who creates the official narrative wins. If it's a lie, fine. If that is what the Theocracy dictates; that is the official word of God.

[sabrina 1]

2. 'These days they shoot reporters' don't they'. Yes, they do, NATO and their allies

have been responsible for the killing of dozens of Reporters. Two RT reporters have been killed in Ukraine, eg. Al Jazeera and RT have been deliberately targeted, because their reporters are showing footage of what is actually happening on the ground. We tortured Al Jazeera reporters, are doing the same now to an RT reporter.

I guess it's okay to kill and torture reporters you don't want covering things that don't make you look good.

THIS is the test of a true democracy, how they react to the silencing of the press when they are not particularly happy with some of it. It's easy to blather about freedom of the press when it's the press you like.

We have failed that test miserably.

RIP to all those journalists who have died in all of our 'conflicts' and who were tortured and imprisoned by our great democracies.

I hope the latest captured reporter in Ukraine is not dead but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Shame on us for the hypocrisy of claiming to still be a democracy, we are not.

[alsame]

3. +1. CNN still reporting that

the Ukraine freelancer is 'being detained'. I hope that's true.

[sabrina 1]

4. I watched him doing some incredible reporting a few weeks ago and said, 'he better be

careful, he is way too courageous to not be targeted'. I was not surprised when I found out who they had gone after.

As for CNN stating he is being detained, why would any journalist be detained in a war zone? Did they ask that at all?

They released the other reporter who has stated that they were beaten badly and moved from place to place. I don't know what the Kiev government expects to gain from their killing and torturing of reporters, but this is a war crime, not that war crimes matter and not a word from our State Dept about the treatment of Al Jazeera reporters in Israel either.

As I said, we long ago failed the test of a real democracy.

I hope however that he is still alive. Now they are in a quandary, he will tell the truth about his treatment, they look bad enough after the killing of the other reporters, I doubt he will be released any time soon. His work is well known, so it's going to be hard to explain this.

[alsame]

5. See the clip at

this link, it seems there are several 'charges' made against him. It doesn't sound good

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/24/world/europe/ukraine-cnn-fixer-abducted/

[sabrina 1]

6. Thanks, that is a different reporter, and he is being held by the Eastern

separatists. The other one who is being held is an RT reporter and is being held by Kiev. I have seen no reports on that one on the MSM.

Shameful, all of it. Perhaps they can work out an exchange. I hope both of them are still alive and released as quickly as possible.

[alsame]

7. Was the RT reporter being held with

a British reporter? I read something about them being released today...let me see if I can find it again.

ETA: Is it Graham Phillips? I found info on RT (which we can't link to) that his cameraman was released today but Phillips is still being held. Cameraman says they were beaten and tortured.

[sabrina 1]

8. Yes, Graham Phillips. He's a British journalist, working for RT and was previously

detained for nearly two days by Kiev troops. Apparently he is still alive according to twitter comments from the other journalist who was released. UK rep says they are looking into it.

We can post Corporate Media links, so I see no reason not to post RT links. Airc, Skinner stated we can, but apparently the hosts in BN banned it there which is why I don't waste time in BN anymore. All I see there are Corporate Media links, and we know how reliable they are!

Reporters Without Borders have been condemning the attacks on journalists. We seem to ignore the problem, but then our own record on this is so bad during the Iraq War, we don't exactly have the moral authority to say much about it. Some of the major damage done to this country by that war crime.

Hopefully they will all be returned safely.

[alsame]

9. This is what I found

on RT. It doesn't sound good. And ITA, these attacks on journalists have to be condemned by everyone, but sadly I don't see us leading the charge.

http://rt.com/news/175284-ukraine-contributor-phillips-hostage/

A journalist released from the ANNA news agency, who was captured along with RT contributor Graham Phillips, told RT that they were abducted by the Ukrainian army and tortured and beaten. Phillips’ fate remains unknown.

<snip>

According to Aksyonov, their captors then took them to another location. He overheard that Phillips was dropped in the city of Krasnoarmeisk, in the Donetsk Region of eastern Ukraine.

Aksyonov thinks that Graham Philips might be taken to either Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, or Zaporizhie, a city in southern Ukraine which borders on the Donetsk Region, or to the city of Uzhhorod in western Ukraine.

The agency still hasn’t reveal the fate of two other hostages - an employee of the press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, and possibly an acquaintance of Phillips, who accompanied the journalist to the airport.