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Reporters in Gaza Have Never Been Free

(Washington Times) Clifford D. May - Since Hamas wrested control of Gaza from rival Fatah in 2007, foreign journalists have been unable to work in the territory without Palestinian sponsors (more commonly known as "minders" or "fixers") answerable to Hamas. They endanger both themselves and these hires if Hamas disapproves of their reporting. Matti Friedman, a former reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press, has exposed Hamas' intimidation and censorship, as well as the limits most journalists covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict impose on themselves. For example, Friedman wrote that during the conflict with Israel in 2014, the AP staff in Gaza City could see Hamas launching missiles from "right beside their office, endangering reporters and other civilians nearby - and the AP wouldn't report it." Nor did they inform readers that Hamas fighters had "burst into the AP's Gaza bureau" and threatened the staff. Cameramen "waiting outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City would film the arrival of civilian casualties and then, at a signal from an official, turn off their cameras when wounded and dead fighters came in, helping Hamas maintain the illusion that only civilians were dying." The writer is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2022-08-18 00:00:00
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