The Independent’s Donald MacIntyre suggests that reporting from Gaza is now no different than reporting from Baghdad:
Since then, the John Ging kidnap attempt, the reports of gunmen entering the TV production offices in central Gaza City saying they were looking for more foreign journalists to kidnap, the sheer length of Mr Johnston’s ordeal, have made the threat seem much more real. All of which underlines the brutal destructiveness of the kidnap to the Palestinian cause, just when it most needs support. And moving round Gaza City with even one vehicle containing armed Palestinian security men, as The Independent was persuaded to do this week, does not make for much productive journalism.
If Gaza, like Iraq, is that perilous for journalists, guess who fills the info vacuum?
