Israel returned broadcast equipment belonging to the Associated Press, hours after it seized it in southern Israel and ended the US news agency’s live broadcast in Gaza.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi reversed the decision, which led to growing international pressure.
The White House expressed concern, while the Foreign Press Association said it was alarmed by “the latest in a series of frightening steps by the Israeli government to crack down on the media.” The UN condemned the move, calling it “shocking”.
AP Vice President Lauren Easton said she “denounces in the strongest terms the actions of the Israeli government.”
Karhi said the equipment was confiscated because it violated a new media law by providing footage for broadcasts on the banned Qatar-based Al Jazeera network.
His recent statement in that a different decision be taken by the Ministry of Defense.”
Karhi claims that the images allegedly shared conveyed “positions of our forces in the north of the Gaza Strip, while placing them at risk, in accordance with security views and the government’s decision.”
Earlier this month, the ministry shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, accusing it of being a “mouthpiece for Hamas” and harming national security.
Al Jazeera rejected the claim that it did and denounced the ban as a “criminal act” that violated human rights. It was also condemned by journalistic organizations as a blow to press freedom.
Al Jazeera continued operations in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where foreign journalists have been banned from entering since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October.
The Associated Press reported that officials at the Israeli Ministry of Communications seized his camera broadcasting an overview of northern Gaza from the southern city of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon.
The officials “handed the AP a piece of paper, signed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, claiming it was violating the country’s foreign broadcasting law,” it said, adding that the agency rejected a verbal order to cease live broadcasting. last Thursday.
The agency emphasized that it complied with Israel’s military censorship rules, which prohibit the broadcast of details such as troop movements that could put soldiers in danger.
However, the Ministry of Communications accused the AP of transmitting images of Gaza from the balcony of a house in Sderot that included “the activity of Israel Defense Forces combat soldiers and their location.”
“Even though Ministry of Communications inspectors warned them that they were breaking the law and that they should remove Al Jazeera as the recipient of their content and not transfer their transmission to Al Jazeera, they continued to do so,” said a statement .
“The law and directives do not distinguish between Al Jazeera itself and suppliers who transfer materials to the [news agency] From Israel.”
The AP report quoted Ms. Easton as saying that “the shutdown was not based on the content of the feed, but rather the Israeli government’s abuse of the country’s new foreign broadcasting law.”
“We ask the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and allow us to immediately reinstate our live broadcast so that we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world,” he added.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the report as “concerning” and said she believes journalists have the ability and right to do their jobs.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said the confiscation of equipment from a major US media outlet was “an act of madness”.
The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem warned that the seizure would prevent the AP from providing crucial images of northern Gaza to hundreds of the agency’s clients around the world.
“Israel’s actions today are a slippery slope. Israel could prevent other international news agencies from providing live footage from Gaza. It could also allow Israel to block media coverage of virtually any news event for vague security reasons,” she added.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders accused Israel of “outrageous censorship.”
On May 9, inspectors from the Ministry of Communications raided a studio used by Al Jazeera in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth and confiscated a camera and other equipment.
The decision came four days after the ministry closed Al Jazeera’s offices in occupied East Jerusalem, stopped the network’s broadcasts on Israeli cable and satellite companies and blocked access to its websites in Israel.
In April, the Israeli parliament passed a new media law that allows foreign networks considered a threat to national security to be “temporarily” banned for a period of 45 days at a time, which can be renewed.
