Presenter injured in latest attack on a Gaza radio station

Reporters Without Borders today firmly condemned a shooting attack on 1 November on radio Sawt al Shaab, a station affiliated to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (FPLP), in which presenter Shadi Shamiya and one of his guests were injured while taking part in a live broadcast. The attack was believed to have been prompted by the broadcast of an incorrect report about a government reshuffle that was picked by many other media. “Palestinian journalists have once again fallen victim to local political rivalries,” the press freedom organisation said. “We are stunned by the disproportionate nature of this attack. It is senseless to raid a news media and fire on its journalists for disseminating a wrong report.” It was the third attack in less than six months on a Gaza media without any security measures being taken by the authorities. Around 10 gunmen took part in the afternoon attack on the radio station, located in the central Gaza City neighbourhood of Al Sabra. They ransacked computer equipment, destroyed the station's only transmitter and fired on employees before departing. Dozens of journalists gathered outside the station yesterday in protest against the attack and the climate of violence to which they are exposed. Al Aamal, a Gaza radio station operated by the Workers Union, was invaded on 12 October by gunmen who smashed equipment and then set fire to the premises. In June, gunmen overran the studios of the national Palestinian TV station in the south of the Gaza Strip, attacking staff and ransacking the premises.