Reporters Without Borders urges Jacques Chirac to push for press freedom in the Palestinian territories

Reporters Without Borders has urged French President Jacques Chirac to raise the plight of the media in the territories under the control of the Palestinian National Authority when he receives Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia in Paris on 11 March. The international press freedom organisation has called on the French president to use his influence to see that the Palestinian government "takes clear, well-defined and effective measures to end the impunity with which Palestinian journalists are being attacked." More than a dozen Palestinian journalists have fallen victim since September 2003 to clan rivalries, a growing political instability and a chaotic security situation within the Palestinian territories. Acts of vandalism and assaults against the media reached their nadir with the murder on 2 March in Gaza of Khalil Al-Zebin, publisher of the bi-monthly An-Nashra and a key adviser to President Yasser Arafat. Reporters Without Borders called on Arafat on 2 March to "do everything in your power to remedy the negligence of the security forces, for which the Palestinian media are unfortunately paying the price." The organisation insisted on the need for the results of investigations to be made public and for legal action to be taken against those responsible for the current onslaught on the safety and freedom of journalists. It made similar demands on 4 February to interior minister Hakam Balaawi after the ransacking of the offices of the weekly Al-Dar in Gaza. Journalist Khalil Al-Zebin, 59, publisher of the bi-monthly An-Nashra and Arafat's advisor on the media, was assassinated by a group of armed men as he was leaving his office in central Gaza City on the night of 1-2 March. No group has admitted responsibility.