Israeli army raids palestinian newspaper offices

Reporters Without Borders today denounced the Israeli army's raid on the main offices of the privately-owned Palestinian daily Al Ayyam in Ramallah and accused it of continuing hostility to the media. "This night-time search of the paper's offices show that attacks on the freedom and work of the media in the Occupied Territories is continuing," said the organisation's secretary-general Robert Ménard. "Despite insistent appeals from many organisations for more respect for journalists of all nationalities, and especially Palestinians, the Israeli army remains hostile and threatening towards the media," he said. Israeli troops went to the paper's offices at 1 a.m. on 6 October, shut all the journalists and other workers in one room and searched the premises for two hours. They smashed open two doors and took two mobile phones belonging to two staff members. They also seized two posters, one calling for an end to the Israeli military occupation and the other showing a child killed in fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. The paper's managers said the search was not systematic, which suggested the raid was mainly to intimidate the paper's staff. Al Ayyam, founded in 1995 by a former adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, is the second biggest circulation daily in the Occupied Territories, especially the Gaza Strip. The intermittent ceasefire in Ramallah has forced it to reduce its print-run from 10,000 to 7,000. It describes itself as "independent and in favour of the peace process."