Communication severed with flotilla media

June 1, 2010

Reporters Without Borders urges the Israeli authorities to release a list of the journalists who were arrested during yesterday’s raid on the humanitarian flotilla and to say where they are being held.

There were at least 15 foreign journalists travelling with the flotilla who still cannot be reached directly. These are the names of the journalists known to have been aboard the flotilla:

• Reporter Svetoslav Ivanov and cameraman Valentin Vassilev of Bulgarian television station BTV

• Muna Shester of the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)

• Talat Hussain, a presenter with Pakistan’s Aaj TV

• Sydney Morning Herald correspondent Paul McGeough and photographer Kate Geraghty.

• Al Jazeera correspondent Abbas Nasser and cameraman Isaam Zaatar

• Mario Damolin, a freelancer working for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to the latest information, he is now held in Be’er Scheva.

• David Segarra of TeleSUR

• Reporter Ayse Sarioglu of the daily Taraf

• Reporter Murat Palavar of the Islamist daily Yeni Safak (New Dawn)

• TVNET foreign news chief Sümeyye Ertekin, producer Ümit Sönmez and cameraman Ersin Esen.

An Al Jazeera TV crew was meanwhile attacked by Israeli citizens in the port of Ashdod yesterday after the defence minister gave a news conference about the attack on the flotilla. Walid Al-Omri, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in the Palestinian territories, was injured in the attack, which followed virulent criticism of the Qatar-based TV station in the Israeli media.


For more information contact:
Reporters without Borders
Phone: 33 1 44 83 84 84
Website: www.rsf.org