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Palestinian Authority Keeps Media under Thumb
(Toronto Star) Vivian Bercovici - At the end of March, a West Bank appeal court upheld a one-year sentence for a man alleged to have defamed PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas by posting his photo online next to that of a TV villain who had collaborated with French colonial rule. The convicted man claimed to have been detained without legal counsel for 20 days and interrogated for 53. Following his lost appeal, Abbas pardoned the man, a small gesture after he'd been churned in the justice system for two years. The previous month, a PA resident was sentenced to a year in prison for posting a photograph of Abbas kicking a soccer ball with a silly caption: "Real Madrid's New Striker." The charge against him? Defamation. The PA has been making a habit of threatening to sue journalists, Hamas activists and just about anyone who doesn't agree with them and Abbas, in order to intimidate dissenters from expressing their views.