Journalist

Journalists Under Attack in Israel

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Published March 28, 2010, in Journalist

By Alex Kane

Journalists fleeing a country out of fear of arrest, media workers being “attacked and detained” by people who enjoy the full backing of the state, and soldiers accused of attacking journalists?  Sounds like Iran’s post-election scene, but this time it’s Israel.

 The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has a good report on the case of Anat Kam:

“Israel has held a journalist under secret house arrest since last December based on allegations that during her military service she leaked classified documents suggesting that the Israeli army violated laws dealing with targeted killings.

Anat Kam, 23, was arrested last December and charged under Israel’s espionage and treason laws, JTA has learned. 

Prosecutors are seeking a 14-year sentence, which is considered severe by Israeli standards.”

Richard Silverstein, who has been blogging on this case, wrote today that an “unconfirmed report” indicates that the Haaretz reporter, Uri Blau, who published the story that caused Kam to be arrested has left Israel in fear of being arrested. 

 

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One Year Later, Reuters Iraqi Photojournalist Still in Military Prison

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Published September 2, 2009, in Journalist

By Daryl Lang

NEW YORK Iraqi photojournalist Ibrahim Jassam remains in a military prison in Iraq a year after his Sept. 2, 2008 arrest. U.S. officials insist he remains a security threat, despite an order last year by an Iraqi court order that he be released.

Jassam is a freelance photographer and cameraman from Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, who works for Reuters.

In a story published today, Reuters reports that there are no specific charges against Jassam, though the U.S. military says he remains a threat because of unspecified activities with insurgents.

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As US forces leave Iraq, Reuters photographer remains detained despite court order

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Published July 1, 2009, in Ibrahim Jassam, Iraqi Detainee, Journalist

As the US troops begin their withdrawal from Iraqi cities today, many questions remain about the persons still detained by the US forces.

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for the release of Reuters photographer Ibrahim Jassam, who has been held since last September.

“The US armed forces are now withdrawing from the main Iraqi cities after six years of occupation,” Paris-based RSF said. “We hope this will result in the release of detainees still held by the Americans, such as Ibrahim Jassam, who was arrested 10 months ago. His detention is illegal as the Iraqi central criminal court dismissed all charges against him last November. He must be freed.”

 

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The U.S. threat to journalists

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Published June 2, 2009, in Ibrahim Jasim, Journalist

THE U.S. has bombed media outlets, killed reporters and imprisoned journalists without charge for years at Guantánamo and elsewhere, writes Jeremy Scahill.

Last week, we reported on how retired U.S. Army Colonel Ralph Peters penned an essay for a leading neocon group calling for future U.S. military attacks on media outlets and journalists. Writing for the journal of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), Col. Peters wrote:

[F]uture wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media… a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow’s conventional wisdom. The point of all this is simple: Win. In warfare, nothing else matters. If you cannot win clean, win dirty. But win.

Of course, what Col. Peters is advocating is not new, nor does he need to propose it as a policy for “future wars.” It is already a de facto U.S. policy to target journalists. The U.S. has consistently attacked journalists and media organizations in modern wars. In the 1999 U.S.-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, General Wesley Clark, then the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, ordered an airstrike on Radio Television Serbia, killing 16 media workers, including make-up artists and technical staff, an action Amnesty International labeled a “war crime.” Richard Holbrooke, who is currently Obama’s point man on Afghanistan and Pakistan, praised that bombing at the time.

 

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U.S holds journalist without charges in Iraq

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Published May 23, 2009, in Ibrahim Jassam, Iraqi Detainee, Journalist

Ibrahim Jassam is the latest journalist the U.S. has arrested and not presented evidence against. A media group notes such actions hurt U.S. standing when it speaks for press freedom and rule of law.

By Liz Sly

Reporting from Baghdad – The soldiers came at 1:30 a.m, rousing family members who were sleeping on the roof to escape the late-summer heat.

They broke down the front door. Accompanied by dogs, American and Iraqi troops burst into the Jassam family home south of Baghdad in the town of Mahmoudiya.

“Where is the journalist Ibrahim?” one of the Iraqi soldiers barked at the grandparents, children and grandchildren as they staggered blearily down the stairs.

 

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Haaretz reporter Amira Hass arrested upon leaving Gaza

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Published May 12, 2009, in Journalist, Palestinian Detainee

By Haaretz Service

Israel Police on Tuesday detained Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass upon her exit from the Gaza Strip, where she had been living and reporting over the last few months.

Hass was arrested and taken in for questioning immediately after crossing the border, for violating a law which forbids residence in an enemy state. She was released on bail after promising not to enter the Gaza Strip over the next 30 days.

Hass is the first Israeli journalist to enter the Gaza Strip in more than two years, since the Israel Defense Forces issued an entry ban following the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in a 2006 cross-border raid by Palestinian militants.

 

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Press body urges Obama to back journalists’ rights

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Published February 11, 2009, in Ibrahim Jassam, Iraqi Detainee, Journalist

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A journalism watchdog called on President Barack Obama on Tuesday to halt open-ended detentions of journalists by the U.S. military, saying they encouraged similar action by repressive governments.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists also called for fuller investigations of the deaths of journalists killed by U.S. forces.

The group’s chairman, Paul Steiger, told a news conference that U.S. support for journalists’ right to do their work without being shot at or imprisoned had slipped in recent years under the administration of former President George W. Bush.

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Khaled Amayrah Arrested by P.A.

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Published January 21, 2009, in Journalist, Khaled Al-Amayrah, Palestinian Detainee

BY Abdul Sattar Kasem

Palestinian Authority security arrested the Palestinian well known journalist and thinker, Khaled Al-Amayrah, for unknown reasons, but what is known is that Amayrah is an able journalist, he usually writes in English in many international information media, it is known that he is an observing Islamist, and professional journalist of high caliber, with high moral and deals with people with respect.

Amayrah is a strong defendant of Palestinian resistance in particular and Arab resistance as a whole, he opposes the recognition of Israel, condemns dealing with it and opposes the Arab security coordination with the Zionist entity as practiced by the Palestinian Authority. His writings had a great effect in explaining the Palestinian cause, and exposes the Zionist atrocities practiced against Palestinians in particular and the Arabs people in general.

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U.S. declines to free Reuters photographer in Iraq

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Published December 10, 2008, in Detainee, Iraq, Journalist

An undated file photo shows Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, a freelance photographer

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military in Iraq is not obliged to obey an Iraqi court order to release a freelance photographer working for Reuters news agency and will hold him into 2009, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled on November 30 that there was no evidence against Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, and ordered the U.S. military to release him from Camp Cropper prison near Baghdad airport, where he has been detained since September.

“Though we appreciate the decision of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in the Jassam case, their decision does not negate the intelligence information that currently lists him as a threat to Iraq security and stability,” said Major Neal Fisher, spokesman for the U.S. military’s detainee operations in Iraq.

“He will be processed for release in a safe and orderly manner after December 31st, in the order of his individual threat level, along with all other detainees,” Fisher said in an email to Reuters.

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Several Days in Afghanistan as an Unembedded Journalist

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Published November 9, 2008, in Afghanistan, Journalist

THE day after US war planes bombed an Afghan wedding party killing more than 30 women and children, I drove from Pakistan’s troubled tribal areas to the border crossing.

Feeling rather sensitive towards my own security as a white westerner, I decided to throw on an all-enveloping burka and make my way across in the anonymity this garment gives women travelers.

As I walked across the border at Torkham towards the Afghan passport control office I heard someone barking in a loud, aggressive American accent at one of the drivers held up at the US-controlled checkpoint.

I looked up and watched as a heavily armoured, helmeted soldier pointed his gun and continued screaming in a rude manner for the driver to get in line.

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