Ref:
69/2010

The
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the recent raid on a Nablus
TV channel, which included the beating of three journalists working for the
channel and the confiscation of filmed material by officers from the
Palestinian Customs Department, who also closed the channel. PCHR notes that this is a flagrant attack on
the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to freedom of the
press, which are guaranteed by the Palestinian Basic Law and by relevant
international human rights instruments.

According
to investigations conducted by PCHR and according to testimonies given by
eyewitnesses, at approximately 11:30 on Tuesday, 03 August 2010, Fursan Bani
Jaber, Head of the Custom Department in Nablus, arrived with a military officer
from the Customs Department and another official from the Ministry of
Telecommunications and Information Technology at the offices of Nablus TV and
demanded the staff to close the office and stop the broadcast. Staff members of the TV channel immediately
stopped the broadcast and Mahmoud Barham, the Director of Nablus TV, requested
officials of the Customs Department to present to him the official document
ordering the closure of the channel, but he was told that they did not have
that document with them. Mr. Barham
debated with the customs officials, who then attacked Mr. Barham and his
colleagues, including Dujana Abdul Latif Abu ‘Eisha, 26, Ayman Bassam Ibrahim
‘Eleiwi, 22, and Alaa’ Raja Abdul Rahman al-Shanti, 22.

Alaa’
al-Shanti told a PCHR fieldworker the following:

“…
We took two cameras to film what was going on. I had one of the two cameras. As
we began filming, they attacked Dujana and Ayman. They beat them and confiscated their
camera. I continued filming, but one of
the customs officers saw me and placed a small bag on the lens to force me to
stop filming. He yelled at me and
ordered me to give him the camera. I
refused to give him the camera and he pushed me on my right shoulder. He held me in the director’s room and closed
the door. An additional force from the
Customs Department was called to the office. They confiscated the camera of Dujana and Ayman. They returned it approximately one hour later
after they had deleted the filmed material.”

In
the wake of this attack, Dr. Mashhour Abu Daqqa, Minister of Telecommunications
and Information Technology, apologized through ‘Hadith al-Watan’ show on Ma’an
Radio to local channels and to their staffs for the acts of the officers of the
Customs Department and the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information
Technology. He also promised to form an
investigative committee to look into these attacks, to make the results public
and to hold perpetrators accountable. Dr. Abu Daqqa said: “The intervention of the Customs Department was
improper. The Department does not have
the power to close local TV channels or to organize official visits to such
stations. It was improper to engage the
Customs Department in such acts and it must not have accepted to play this role
even if requested to do so.” Dr. Abu
Daqqa explained that only the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information
Technology and the Palestinian police have power to make such interventions.

PCHR
strongly condemns this attack on Nablus TV Channel by the Customs
Department and:

1. Expresses concern over
the recurrence of such attacks on the right to freedom of opinion and
expression and the right to freedom of the press. PCHR stresses the importance of providing
protection to journalists and to the media and to take necessary measures to
enable them to conduct their duties freely.

2. Reiterates that the
right to freedom of opinion and expression is guaranteed by the Palestinian
Basic Law and by international human rights instruments.

3. Calls upon Palestinian
security services to respect international human rights standards, the
Palestinian Basic Law and other relevant laws.