Al-Jazeera correspondent in Gaza freed

The Gaza correspondent of Al-Jazeera, Saifeddin Shahin, was freed late on 6 January after being held for 18 hours in an effort to make him reveal the true identity of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade militant he talked to by phone on 5 January, simultanously broadcasting the conversation. -------------------- 6.01.03 - Al-Jazeera correspondent in Gaza questioned by Palestinian intelligence agents Reporters Without Borders protested today at the arrest by Palestinian intelligence agents of the Gaza correspondent of the Qatari-based pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera to question him about a phone call he received and broadcast on the air. The reporter, Saifeddin Shahin, was arrested at dawn on 6 January after the call, from someone saying they were a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and claiming responsibility for the 5 January double bombing in Tel Aviv that killed 25 people, was broadcast the same evening by the station. "We are glad the Palestinian Authority is actively combating organisations that sow terror and death in Israel," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. "However, the right of journalists not to reveal sources is an untouchable part of press freedom and even the need to fight terrorism cannot justify arresting journalists to force them to disclose sources." The phone caller, who gave his name as Abu Qussai, also warned that suicide attacks on Israel would continue and criticised what he called the "defeatist wing" of President Yasser Arafat's Al-Fatah organisation. The Palestinian Authority condemned the Tel Aviv bombings, which the Islamist group Hamas and the radical Islamic Jihad movement also claimed as their work.