Freedom of the press, Hamas-style

Yesterday, when Hamas broke up a demonstration by the PFLP against power outages in Gaza, two reporters were beaten and their equipment confiscated.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the attack, which came on the heels of another attack by Hamas on an Al Jazeera reporter a few days earlier.

The syndicate is inviting a delegation from the International Federation of Journalists to Gaza to discuss the erosion of press freedoms in Gaza.

After the arrest of the Al Jazeera reporter, Reporters Without Borders finally wrote a report on the lack of press freedoms in both Gaza and the West Bank. (I had mentioned the absence of such a report in late July.)

Incidentally, IFJ has a condemnation of the death of the Lebanese journalist who was covering the ambush of the IDF last week. It mentions that three Lebanese soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire - but was silent on the Israeli officer killed by a sniper.