Journalists in Danger

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked and saddened by the death of Italian free-lance photographer Raffaele Ciriello, who was killed this morning by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to press reports and eyewitness testimony.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today called on Israel to provide a full accounting of a series of incidents in which a journalist was killed and several others were shot at during the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) large-scale military operation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last week.

On 29 March 2002, RSF protested the shooting of Carlos Handal, a Palestinian television cameraman working for the Egyptian station Nile TV, in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The International Federation of Journalists today called for Israel to lift its ban on reporters covering the military intervention in the West Bank town of Ramallah, warning that censorship in the conflict will not bring peace “but only lead to more ignorance, rumour and fear.”

At least eleven journalists have come under fire and three of them have been wounded since the Israeli army declared Ramallah a “closed military zone” and barred the media from the West Bank city, the first such ban since the start of the second Intifada in September 2000.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today reiterated its alarm at mounting press restrictions and attacks on reporters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired stun grenades and rubber bullets at reporters outside the Ramallah compound of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Israeli forces continue to restrict the movements of journalists attempting to cover events in the West Bank.

According to information received by the IFJ from the West Bank, 16 Palestinian journalists were arrested in the press centre in Bethlehem Municipality by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and transported yesterday morning to the military Headquarters at Kefar Etzion near Bethlehem.

The International Federation of Journalists today launched a new appeal for Israel to stop targeting journalists and media after Israeli soldiers opened fire on a crowd of television and press staff trying to cover the meeting between United States envoy Anthony Zinni and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.