Hamas bans press conferences in Gaza City

Reporters Without Borders condemns a police raid on the headquarters of the Ramattan News Agency in Gaza City on 10 November that prevented the National Action Commission from holding a news conference there. Members of the Hamas government also prevented another press conference from taking place in Gaza City the same day. “Such practices are violations of both the law and freedom of the press,” said the management of the privately-owned Ramattan News Agency, which decided immediately after the raid to close all of its offices in protest until further notice. “This is a policy aimed at restricting independent journalistic work in Gaza,” Ramattan News Agency added. “Our agency can no long operate normally. This is the first time that we have been the victims of such a violent raid by the security forces since Ramattan News Agency was created 10 years ago.” Reporters Without Borders said: “This violence and this obstruction show that the Hamas-led government is trying to restrict media coverage of events in Gaza that could undermine its political message. We would like to express our support for this independent news agency, which has managed to provide news coverage in Gaza despite raids, threats and attacks from all quarters.” The National Action Commission had planned to hold a news conference at the headquarters of Ramattan News Agency in order to announce the cancellation of an event to mark the fifth anniversary of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s death. But police officers attached to the Hamas government’s internal security service burst in and prevented it from going ahead. Gunmen said the news conference was “illegal” because no permit had been requested from the Hamas authorities. They demanded that Ramattan News Agency and Al-Qods TV surrender the footage they had filmed, and then they ordered everyone to leave. Hamas members also prevented independent journalists from giving a news conference in Gaza City that had been organised the same day by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Journalists in the West Bank city of Ramallah were to have participated by means of videoconferencing. Last September, Reporters Without Borders published “Gaza, the Black Book,” while in February it published “Operation Cast Lead: news control as a military objective,” a report on press freedom violations during the Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip in January 2009.