The Ahrar Center for Detaineesâ€™ Studies demands the release of six detained reporters

Sunday May 04, 2008 05:42

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

On the World Press Freedom Day, May 3, the Ahrar Center for Detainees’ Studies demanded Reporters Without Borders Organization and the International Journalists Union to defend six Palestinian reporters imprisoned by Israel.

The Center added that most of the detained reported are under administrative detention orders without charges or trial.

Fuad Al Khuffash, head of the center, said that on this day “we should all remember those reporters who are capturing the suffering of the Palestinian people and the truth; they all ended in prison for that”.

Al Khuffash stated that six reporters are still imprisoned by Israel. He identified the six detained reporters as Sami Al Assy from Nablus, Waleed Khalid from Salfit (the Editor-in-chief of Palestine Newspaper), Tareq Abu Zeid, Mohammad Al Halaiqa, Jihad Daoud, and Nizar Ramadan (he is also a legislator).

All six reporters are imprisoned under administrative detention orders without charges or trial.

Al Khuffash said that all institutions that are working to ensure the freedom of press should highlight the suffering of Palestinian reporters as their arrest and continued detention violates the international law and the Fourth Geneva Conventions. .

On May 16, Israeli soldiers shelled a Reuters vehicle and killed cameraman Fadel Shana’a. Reuters soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed was injured in the attack. More than five years ago, Israeli soldiers shot and killed James Miller, a British Cameraman. Miller, 24, was shot by the Israeli army as he was making a documentary film about the Palestinian children in the Rafah Refugee Camp, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. He was carrying a white flag as he approached a military vehicle to ask if it is safe to leave the area, yet, soldiers opened fire and killed him.

It is worth mentioning that a seventh reporter, identified as Hafith Olewy, 26, was recently arrested by the Israeli army and was sent to court on Sunday.

World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on 3 May worldwide. It is an opportunity to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed World Press Freedom Day in 1993, following a recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991.

www.un.org