Reporters Without Borders is upset that Hamas recently detained Palestinian journalists working for German TV station ARD. The journalist’s rights organization, better known by its French acronym, RSF, writes:
They were suspected for working for the state-owned Palestine Broadcasting Corporation, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and has been banned in the Gaza Strip since June 2007. Khalifa used to work for the PBC but had to sever all contact with the station, which now operates out of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Problem is that quite a few Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza work for news services affiliated with the PA, or with factions like Fatah, Hamas, etc. The same journalists moonlight for Western news services, ostensibly covering the organizations that sign their primary paychecks. That spells conflict of interest.
Hamas took a shot against press freedom, but don’t kid yourself. Hamas also knows some of these journalists are indeed skating on ethically thin ice. Do ARD’s German viewers?
