'Israeli regime escalates attacks on journalists'

Tue Feb 14, 2012 - Israeli forces continue deliberate attacks against journalists.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Soazig Dollet, Reporters Without Borders, to further discuss the issue.
The following is a transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Thank you so much for joining us. I hope you heard a little of that story. Is it an isolated case?
Dollet: No, it's not an isolated case. The point is that they've been there for the past many years, even decades. Many foreign journalists and also Israeli photographers are targeted by Israeli forces while covering demonstrations especially those demonstrations against the war between Israel and the occupied territories in the West Bank.
But also we have cases of Palestinian journalists targeted by Israeli forces in the Gaza strip. So, it's really not an isolated case.
We got the case of Palestinian journalist Mohammad Othman when in May 15 he had been targeted by Israeli soldiers at the Erez checkpoint while he was covering demonstrations.
Press TV: Do we know why?
Dollet: We've tried to get information regarding the presence of such attacks and one of the Israeli photographers lodged a complaint against IDF forces, his name is Matt Hammerstein, and he got an answer saying that you journalists are in a place where there is danger so you should know that something like that might happen.
Such an explanation, of course, is not enough for Reporters Without Borders. We do not stop condemning such violations by Israeli forces like when these violations come from the Palestinian Authority but also by the Hamas government.
Such violations are almost on a weekly basis. You got many Palestinian journalists also arrested by Israeli forces and kept in Israeli prisons, and sometimes sentenced to administrative detention for many, many months, and without really clear reasons because the military prosecution says it's a secret file. Even the lawyers do not have access to the files that the Shabbat has.
Press TV: Reporters Without Borders, they condemn these actions unequivocally?
Dollet: Yeah. All kinds of violations against press freedom all over the world, we do condemn such violations.
We send recommendations to Frank La Rue before he went to Israel and occupied Palestinian territories giving him recommendations to both sides for when he was visiting Israeli authorities to really raise the issue of deliberate attacks by Israeli forces against journalists - Palestinians, Israelis, foreigners, whatever - and also to the Palestinian Authorities in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip with the Hamas government saying that any kind of violations of press freedom is unacceptable and this should stop.
We raise the issue on a very frequent basis.
Press TV: Now we know it's a busy office and we thank you for taking the time. Very quickly, Soazig, what was the reaction from the Israeli authorities when this was mentioned?
Dollet: We do not have any answer from the Israeli authorities. It's really, really rare that we do have feedback from Israeli forces. It could [especially] be the ministry of foreign affairs but also the ministry of defense.
We rarely have answers from the government. Sometimes they do not take time to answer questions.