Journalists strike against attacks in violation of freedom of speech
“Dozens of journalists held a sit-down strike in front of the PA Presidential Headquarters in Ramallah, to protest the arrest of and attacks on journalists by the Security Forces in recent days, and demanded that the government officially condemn the attacks and to act to prevent their recurrence. In a letter delivered to the prime minister as well as on placards displayed during the sit-down strike, the sit-down strikers called for the cessation of what [they] described as the suppression of freedoms and the silencing, arrest and persecution of journalists, while others called for respecting and strengthening freedom of the press and freedom of speech and opinion.
The sit-down strike came in response to the arrest of George Kanawati, director of the Bethlehem 2000 radio station, and Sami Al-Sa'i, a correspondent for the Wattan News Agency in Tulkarem by the Security Forces, in addition to what was termed the persecution and summoning for questioning of journalists, which had stoked the journalists’ anger and drawn their condemnation.
The sit-down strikers delivered a letter to Government Spokesman Dr. Ehab Bessaiso addressed to the President [Mahmoud Abbas], in which they demanded that the government form a committee to investigate the matter of the assault and arrest of Kanawati and to clarify the reasons behind Al-Sa'i’s’ arrest. In addition, they demanded that a message be directed to the Minister of Interior [Sa’id Abu Ali], demanding the cessation of the arrests of journalists and the policy of summoning them for interrogation, and to set a limit to the violations of the Prime Minister’s Guard during [media] coverage of events.
[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah asserted his pledge to [support] freedom of the press and journalism in Palestine, and [said] the government would investigate the issue of the sit-down strike and examine all of the journalists’ demands. In addition, he promised to demand accountability from those involved, in the event proof was found that violations had been committed.”