Journalists group condemns strike on Gaza media

[Joanne98]

Source: AP

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday struck two high-rise buildings housing international media, drawing sharp criticism from the Foreign Press Association.

Two journalists were moderately wounded when Israeli fire hit a Palestinian media center that works with international media and is located two floors above the Reuters news agency. TV footage showed the wounded men in flak jackets marked "press" being rushed to the hospital.

It was not clear if the building was hit by ground fire or by aircraft.

Bullets also flew into the office of The Associated Press in another building several hundred yards away, entering a room where two staffers were working. No one was wounded.

Media organizations had given the Israeli military the locations of their offices in Gaza to avoid such incidents.

The Foreign Press Association, representing journalists covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, demanded a halt to attacks on press buildings, saying the Israeli military was "severely violating basic principles of respect for press freedom."



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i7TlqVT_F1SFhRyNY0IjlMc8tZUwD95NOQLO1

[DogPoundPup]

1. Foreign press urges boycott of Israeli army footage after attack

Source: Yahoo / AFP

The Foreign Press Association on Thursday urged its members to boycott Israeli army photos and video footage to protest at the shelling of a media building in Gaza City that wounded two cameramen.

The move was also prompted by the Israeli army's (IDF) refusal to allow reporters to enter the territory to cover the conflict in which some 1,100 people have been killed in the largest Israeli offensive ever launched on the Hamas-run enclave.

"The FPA rejects and condemns the IDF policy of controlling the news coverage of the events in Gaza," said the group -- which represents foreign media outlets in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including AFP.

"By preventing the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza and bombing buildings housing offices of international media -- contrary to IDF assurances that these media buildings would be safe -- the IDF is severely violating basic principles of respect for press freedom," it said.

Read more: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090115/twl-foreign-press-urges-boycott-of-israe-3cd7efd.html