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Firsthand accounts from reporters who were on the flotilla of humanitarian activists raided by Israeli forces on Monday are finally coming out as the journalists are released from custody. These early reports indicate that soldiers harassed international journalists—at least six had their equipment either confiscated or destroyed, according to CPJ interviews and news reports. Media accounts have indicated that 60 journalists or more were aboard the ships; on Tuesday, CPJ independently verified the names and affiliations of 20 journalists who had been taken into custody.
Othman Battiri, a senior producer at Al-Jazeera who was on board the Mavi Marmara and released on Tuesday, told CPJ that soldiers confiscated Al-Jazeera's cameras, tapes, satellite phones, and mobile phones. Battiri and his colleagues—Mohamed Vall, Jamal Elshayyal, and Andre Abou Khalil—identified themselves as press, and had their wrists tied with PlastiCuffs. They were also pushed and searched “in a humiliating way,” Battiri said.
“For sure, there is a psychological aftermath because of the way people were treated, especially journalists,” he said. "We were supposed to cover this and it is not right that we were treated in this way." Battiri added that they were released "only in T-shirts and trousers" and without their equipment.
Al-Jazeera
reporter Vall was released and sent to
Issam Za'atar, an Al-Jazeera photographer who was on the ship, taken into custody, and released on Tuesday, reported that the Israeli soldiers used force, breaking his arm and his camera. He also added that he went through a “long and exhausting interrogation.”
According
to the Pakistani daily Express Tribuna,
two journalists for
Hussain
was quoted as telling Aaj TV by phone from
We
anticipate that more details will emerge as journalists are being released,
although so far reporters appear to be leaving the country without their recording
equipment.
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It is very condemable to mistreat and arrest the journalists. Even their professional equipment was confiscated,therefore, civil societies across the world should,collectively, condome this unethical and against-free-media act.