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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | ||
| Paleo journos strike in solidarity for Beeb reporter | ||
| 2007-04-03 | ||
Palestinian journalists began a three-day strike yesterday to protest over the "insufficient" response by the Palestinian government to the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who yesterday entered his fourth week of captivity.
The chairman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), Naim Toubassi, told the gathering: "Where is the government today? Why, during three weeks, can't it free a guest journalist, a British colleague? I put full responsibility on the government."
And Majed Said, the Ramallah correspondent for Abu Dhabi Television, even threatened to stop reporting on the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, if more was not done. "This is unacceptable for us. We will boycott the coverage of Abbas if Johnston is not released," he said. With no group claiming responsibility, there is speculation that members of a powerful clan in Gaza City, the Dogmush family, are holding Mr Johnston. According to one theory, both Fatah and Hamas are reluctant to antagonise the heavily armed clan in case factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas resumes. Jonathan Baker, deputy head of news gathering for the BBC, said: "Each day we are more worried. We don't know who is holding him or why. "We have had no contact directly [with the kidnappers] or with anyone who says they are in direct contact. We have no hard information at all. There have been no demands and no claims of responsibility." Mohammed Henihen, an official in President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, predicted the Palestinian cause will be badly damaged by the kidnapping. "My fear is that journalists won't visit the Gaza Strip and West Bank anymore," he said. "They will not be able to report the suffering and the truth of what is happening. We need journalists to be here and demand these kidnappers free this journalist." | ||
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #4 Maan had this interesting little tidbit yeaterday.. Local collaboration Israeli media sources have claimed that Johnston is being held by the Dughmush clan in the Gaza Strip, with the cooperation of local Gaza photographers. In the Friday edition of the Israeli daily 'Maariv', it was alleged that "a spontaneous amalgamation of local Gaza photographers" are behind the kidnapping of foreign photo-journalists. The presence of foreign journalists threatens the local journalists' livelihoods as freelance work is taken away from them and carried out by foreign, highly-paid, correspondents. However, Maariv adds that Johnston appears to have the support of the majority of the local Palestinian journalists. Fran Unsworth, the head of BBC news-gathering, told Maariv that local journalists "are helping very much to secure his release." Abd Al-Askar, who, according to Maariv, represents several foreign media organizations in Gaza, said, "Johnston is a friend of the Palestinian journalists." Unsworth would not confirm that Johnston was being held by the Dughmush family. Maariv claimed that the Dughmush family is the main beneficiary from these kidnapping operations, alleging that they receive up to US $2 million in ransom money for the release of a foreign journalist. Maariv alleges that the American news network, Fox News, paid out this amount to secure the release of US correspondent Steve Centanni and New Zealander photographer Olaf Wiig last summer. ...and you thought the Teamsters were hard asses? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-04-03 10:55 |
| #3 a friend of the Palestinians and conveyor of the truthiness There, fixed it. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-04-03 01:21 |
| #2 a friend of the Palestinians and conveyor of the truth How'd he manage that? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-04-03 01:17 |
| #1 Much like the comity shared between sharks and lawyers this is merely another case of professional courtesy. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-03 00:08 |