The Jerusalem Post reports that Abdullah Issa, publisher and editor of the on-line magazine Donia al-Watan, was arrested—because he reported that Mahmoud Zahar had hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stolen from his Kuwait hotel room last April. The Post writes:
The story implied that Zahar was carrying large amounts of cash while Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were deprived of financial aid.
This is the first time since the Hamas government took over that a Palestinian journalist has been detained for publishing a story that reflects negatively on one of its leaders….
Hamas leaders claim that the PA media, which is largely controlled by the rival Fatah party, has been waging a campaign of incitement against the Islamic movement and its leaders over the past few months. The detention of the editor is clearly designed to send a warning to all Fatah-affiliated reporters and media outlets.
Read more about the Palestinian media wars here.
