Palestinians: "Journalism" Hamas Style

by Khaled Abu Toameh • February 14, 2019 at 5:00 am

For Hamas, "accuracy" means that a journalist working in the Gaza Strip will show Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the worst possible light -- regardless of the facts.
Instead of honoring the young and dedicated journalist for her courage, Hamas has decided to punish her. Instead of interrogating and prosecuting the corrupt officials whose identities were mentioned in her reporting, investigative journalist Hajer Harb is the one who is now standing trial for telling the truth.
It now remains to be seen whether Western journalists and media outlets will voice any concern at all over the ongoing attempts by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to silence and intimidate Palestinian journalists.

Hajer Harb, a courageous Palestinian investigative journalist and cancer survivor, is standing trial in the Gaza Strip for the "crime" of exposing corruption in Hamas-run ministries and institutions. (Image source: Hager Press video screenshot)

Hamas, as part of its crackdown on freedom of the media, has imposed yet another restriction on the work of journalists in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas measure has left many Palestinian journalists worried about their ability to report on what is happening in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Foreign journalists, for their part, have yet to respond to the latest assault on public freedoms.

What exactly did Hamas do to anger the Palestinian journalists? Earlier this week, the Hamas-controlled Government Press Office issued a directive in which it said that, as of April 1, journalists will not be permitted to conduct interviews or enter government institutions in the Gaza Strip unless they have obtained a "press card" issued by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Information.

This new directive means that any journalist who does not receive a "press card" from Hamas will not be able to operate freely and independently in the Gaza Strip.

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Turkey: Jihadist Literature Gets a Pass

by Uzay Bulut • February 14, 2019 at 4:00 am

"It is really sorrowful to live in a country that silences, prosecutes, jails its authors and forces them to live in exile," Hasan Cemal wrote in January.
It is worse than "sorrowful," however, that writers in Turkey who promote jihad are given a pass.

Turkish journalist Hasan Cemal recently bemoaned that a publishing house rejected his latest book, Sorrow, on the grounds that it would lead to the imprisonment of both the author and the publisher for expressing liberal views antithetical to the government of President Erdoğan. Pictured: Hasan Cemal. (Image source: Armineaghayan/Wikimedia Commons)

The Turkish journalist Hasan Cemal recently bemoaned that a publishing house rejected his latest book, Sorrow, on the grounds that it would lead to the imprisonment of both the author and the publisher for expressing liberal views antithetical to the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. According to Cemal, the works of other well-known writers in Turkey -- such as Oya Baydar, Nedim Gürsel, Aslı Erdoğan, Baskın Oran and Nurcan Baysal -- have met a similar fate, for the same reason.

Not all authors and publishers in Turkey, however, live in such fear. For instance, the Turkish translation of the book Al-Wala' Wal-Bara ("Loving and Hating for the Sake of Allah Alone"), written by al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, are freely published by Beyaz Minare and distributed by Benli.

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