Israel Occupies Reuters Office, Attacks Journalists

TEL AVIV, Israel, Jun 10, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The Foreign Press Association Monday slammed Israeli authorities for preventing free coverage of the West Bank town of Ramallah, seizing the Reuters news agency offices there, and the continued detention of Palestinian journalists working for some foreign news agencies.

The director of Israel's Government Press Office, Daniel Seaman, told United Press International the detained journalists are suspected of involvement in terror and therefore have no immunity.

He criticized the FPA, saying their attitude "encourages terror."

The FPA, which represents journalists covering Israel and the Palestinian territories for the foreign media, protested the army's decision to declare Ramallah a closed military zone. The move "makes it impossible to verify rumors," it said in a statement.

The army organized pool coverage, accompanying an American journalist to Ramallah who then distributed his account to the other FPA members.

However, according to the association, "Such army-regulated access cannot come in place of unimpeded reporting of an important story in a heavily populated area."

The statement went on to "view with alarm" the military takeover of Reuters' office in Ramallah.

"This is the second time the army has occupied the Reuters office in recent months -- a sign that it considers such measures are acceptable and warranted. They are neither, and we ask that they cease," the statement said.

The FPA expressed concern also over the continued detention of Palestinians who work with foreign media.

It was referring to two journalists who have been under detention for weeks, Yussri al Jamal of Reuters TV and photographer Ossam Abu Alan of Agence France Press. Khalil Hamra, a photographer from Rafah, Gaza, who occasionally contributes to the Associated Press, has been detained since Friday, the statement added.

"In these cases, and in others that preceded them, the media organizations involved were provided with no indication of the reasons for the arrest beyond the most general of allegations. As far as we can tell, no real effort was made to speed up the handling of the cases and to account for the extremely problematic aspect of the arrest of journalists. Government officials routinely underscore that, indeed, they do not recognize these Palestinians as journalists -- and this is a position we utterly reject and deplore," the FPA statement said.

It urged the Israeli government to handle such detentions "with the urgency they merit, provide the employers with concrete information on any charges, and failing this, release the detainees without delay."

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman's office said it would comment Tuesday.

The commander of the Israeli troops in the Ramallah area, Col. Ilan Paz, said they had taken over the building that houses the Reuters office because it provides a vantages point for the entire city.

Seaman said the detained journalists are being held because of testimony and suspicion that "link them to terror activities," but would not further elaborate his statement.

If found innocent, the detained journalists will be freed just as two other Reuters journalists, he said.

Visibly annoyed over the FPA's criticism, Seaman said: "The lives of the Israeli citizens are slightly more important than the nonsense they talk."

By JOSHUA BRILLIANT