Call for release of two TV journalists held in Hebron

Reporters Without Borders called today for the release of Al-Aqsa TV reporter Alaa Al-Titi and cameraman Ossayd Amarneh, held on unknown charges since 5 November in the West Bank city of Hebron (30 km south of Jerusalem). The organisation is also concerned about death threats received in Gaza by Imad Eid, the head of the Ma'an news agency. “The situation of journalists continues to worsen in the Palestinian Territories,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Both Hamas and Fatah ride roughshod over press freedom and arrest journalists without any justification. How can they work safely in these conditions? We appeal to Mahmoud Abbas and Ismael Haniyeh to act wisely and to call the different Palestinian security services to order.” No charges were presented against Titi and Amarneh when they appeared before a judge in Hebron (Al-Khalil in Arabic) on 20 November. Their families refused to pay the requested bail of 12,000 shekels (2,000 euros), accusing the authorities of “extortion.” The two journalists, whose station is affiliated to the Islamist party Hamas, were arrested on 5 November after interviewing the relatives of a Hamas parliamentarian held by the Israeli army. Mou'taz Al-Kurdi, the head of the TV station Al-Amal, was meanwhile released on 10 November, the day after his arrest in Hebron by security forces controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The death threats against Eid, who is the Gaza Strip correspondent of the Lebanese TV station Al-Manar as well as head of the Ma'an news agency, were made by an unidentified person who called his mobile phone on 15 November and referred to the fact that he was a journalist. Eid told Reporters Without Borders he reported the threat to the police. “I told them I am in fear of life, especially in view of the recent abuses against many of my fellow journalists in the Gaza Strip,” he said. On the same subject: 28.12.2006 - Palestinian journalists caught in the Gaza crossfire 27.07.2007 - Media diversity in danger in Gaza Strip and West Bank 9.11.2007 - A third pro-Hamas journalist arrested in the West Bank