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Journalists held in the Defense Ministry Building

Journalistic freedoms observatory (JFO) calls on journalists to boycott all that show no respect to their media work, or to deliberately violate their rights. This comes after the detention and beating of some journalists by the guards of the defense ministry yesterday-Monday.

Some satellite channels' reporters tried to leave the hall when they knew about the delay of the arrival of the defense minister, but they were prevented and held in a hall for more than 30 minutes with confiscating their cell phones, some of them were abused by the guards of the building.

Roaa al-Shummari,al-Fayha satellite channel reporter, told the JFO that they were informed by the ministry's media office to attend at 3:30pm to cover the minister's conference, but they waited till 5:00pm when an official dressed in civil clothes told them the conference would start at 6:pm. When they asked him to let them see the media official, he apologized that he was sleeping and he can not wake him up.
She added that after the dispute between the camera man of the al-Hurra channel with one of the soldiers, all the journalists decided to leave the building, but they were prevented and harshly abused by the security elements.

She maintained that when Omar Mohammed, al-Hurra correspondent, tried to leave the building, the guard brutally prevented him, then all the journalists decided to boycott the conference despite the attempt of Mohammed al-Askeri, the ministry's media consultant, to contact us to inform us about the arrival of the minister, but we have made up our minds to leave after many disputes with some soldiers.

JFO thinks that denouncing such act is not enough; it urges all the journalists to boycott any activity of any ministry that shows no respect to the media mission, and it asks all the media organizations to line up with the decisions of their colleagues in their respect to the professional and ethical behavior.

 

 

 

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