Soldiers acted against instructions Friday when they broke the cameras of two AFP reporters who had gone to the West Bank Palestinian village of Beit Faruk to film a demonstration, the IDF said.
On Saturday, the IDF said it was investigating the incident and that the commanders had been informed of the matter, but an initial inspection showed the soldiers acted inappropriately and “against the orders of their commanders,” and would face disciplinary measures.
MK Nachman Shai (Zionist Union) wrote a letter to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, demanding that he instruct the IDF to investigate the incident and make it clear that such behavior must change.
“It cannot be that IDF soldiers harm and attack members of the press,” Shai said. “The press’s job is to be everywhere all the time. It is an inseparable part of reality. Breaking cameras and violence teaches the journalists that the soldiers and their commanders do not understand the basic values of democracy and, first and foremost, freedom of expression.”
In a story it wrote about the incident, AFP said the IDF threw Italian video journalist Andrea Bernardi to the ground, jabbed him with a weapon and held him down until he produced a press card and that soldiers took away the camera of Palestinian photographer Abbas Momani.
Read more:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/IDF-Soldiers-acted-inappropriately-in-breaking-AFP-reporters-cameras-419204My sympathies are entirely with the soldiers. Press are a bleep pain at the best of times.
