Drazen Pantic on Thu, 4 Apr 2002 01:04:46 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> [dkuttab@ammannet.net: Al Quds Educational TV Closed by Israel Army] |
----- Forwarded message from Daoud Kuttab <dkuttab@ammannet.net> ----- From: "Daoud Kuttab" <dkuttab@ammannet.net> To: <fh@freedomhouse.org> Cc: "Carol Klinger" <CKlinger@npr.org>, "Khaled Abu Aker" <kabuaker@amin.org>, <ifj@ifj.org> Subject: Al Quds Educational TV Closed by Israel Army Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 20:09:33 +0200 Press release for immediate distribution For more details please call Ayman El Bardawil 00 972 50 201221 Israeli Troops Close Al Quds Educational TV Station AND OCCUPY BUILDING Israeli troops effectively closed the only remaining local television station in the Ramallah area Tuesday April 2 night thus depriving tens of thousands of Palestinians with critical information. Al Quds Educational TV, which is part of Al Quds University, stopped broadcasting when Israeli soldiers arrested the two remaining staffers who were manning the station and took over the entire four Medical Professions building which houses medical labs in addition to the educational television station. The television station which was broadcasting key messages to the population about health and safety issues was closed at 6:30pm when Israeli troops held TV staffers Ahmad Abu Arra and Numan Kabaha at gunpoint in the buildings basement for four hours before releasing them. In the meantime soldiers took over the entire building. Daoud Kuttab, founder and director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University said that he is concerned that Israeli soldiers will ruin the station's equipment thus preventing the station from being able to go back on the air. "The record of Israeli soldiers in many other public and private buildings leads us to worry that these soldiers might rampage through the station." Kuttab also expressed anger at the Israeli army's action which completely isolates the population of Ramallah by denying them critical emergency information. Contact had been lost with the two staffers who called the television director informing him that the soldiers had arrived at the Medical Professions Building which houses the educational television station. Four hours later they were released but ordered to go home. Five tanks moved into the parking lot and the entire building was occupied. An angry viewer related that when he called the station to protest Israeli soldiers answered the phone. Professor Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds University had instructed the television staff to continue to broadcast the regular programs which include children, health and public service announcements despite the difficult situation. The station was also broadcasting television spots prepared by UNICEF aimed at reassuring children in times of trauma. Al Quds Educational Television which began broadcsating in 1996 had in previous years produced and broadcast the Middle East version of Sesame Street with messages of tolerance and mutual respect. ----- End forwarded message ----- # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net