Afaq TV, a Palestinian commercial TV station based in Nablus, was closed by Israeli soldiers yesterday for one year on the grounds that it was ‘terrorist’ media. ‘We are an independent media and, regardless of what the Israeli military says, we have never given our allegiance to any political movement,’ argued Afaq TV director, Issa Abu el Izz. The entrance to the station was sealed up, and the station has been forced to stop broadcasting.
Read more here
The legal row between a UK blog and a Muslim activist could be a landmark case, writes Padraig Reidy
(more…)
A recent French court decision leaves us no closer to the truth about footage that shook the Middle East, writes Natasha Lehrer
A seven-year debate over the authenticity of the footage of the death of Mohammed al Dura in the arms of his father Jamal reached a new stage on 21 May when the Paris Court of Appeal overturned a defamation verdict against blogger Philippe Karsenty.
In 2004 Karsenty joined the chorus voicing scepticism about the al Dura footage. He accused the veteran France 2 Middle East correspondent Charles Enderlin, who provided the voiceover for the report from Gaza, which was filmed by freelance cameraman Talal Abu Ramah, of knowingly having broadcast faked footage of the shooting at the Netzarim Junction on 30 September 2000. Enderlin and France 2 have consistently rebutted this accusation and have so far taken four bloggers, including Karsenty, to court. In the original court case, in 2006, the court did not demand that France 2 hand over the rushes. Karsenty was found guilty of defamation.
(more…)
Recent factional fighting in Beirut saw journalists come under attack, writes Charles Chuman
On 7 May 2008, Hezbollah and its allies in the Lebanese opposition began dismantling the authority of the Lebanese government. The army and police force could not respond to the situation, and the Lebanese opposition took control of Beirut’s streets.
Along with their systematic military takeover, Hezbollah and the opposition immediately began censoring the Lebanese media through direct intimidation, infrastructural destruction, and a disinformation campaign. Media analyst and former editor-in-chief of the Middle East Broadcasting Journal, Habib Battah, explains, ‘The media was a primary target in this campaign. It was one of the first things to be attacked as Hezbollah took control. They could have chosen other places to attack, but they chose the media.’
(more…)