Journalists banned from filming score-settling

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières - RSF) expressed concern today at threats to journalists and seizure of their film as they covered the killing of a man suspecting of collaborating with Israel. "The Palestinian Authority must make a speedy enquiry into this incident, punish those responsible and ensure that journalists can work freely," RSF secretary-general Robert Ménard said in a letter to Palestinian deputy interior minister Ahmed Said Tamimi. After several armed Palestinians had killed a suspected collaborator in Bethleem on 1 April, one of them told journalists they could film or photograph the body. He then changed his mind and warned them they would be "held personally responsible" if the pictures were published or broadcast. The film of a cameraman and a photographer working for Reuters news agency was seized. Palestinian police prevented foreign journalists from working in Jenin on 5 February while they were covering the trial of three Palestinians charged with murder. The film of television crews were confiscated by police after pictures had been taken outside the building where the trial was held of a crowd of people protesting against what they considered a light sentence. The defendants had been sentenced to 15 years' for killing, a week earlier, a Palestinian security official who was a distant relative. The crowd then forced their way into the building and fired shots that killed the three defendants.