FC: First-person account: Israeli army shutters Palestinian TV station

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: "Xeni Jardin" <xeni () xeni net>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Cc: <dkuttab () ammannet net>
Subject: Kuttab op/ed on media in Ramallah (was: re: pornocasts aimed at 
Palestinian TV)
Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 08:21:41 -0700

Declan,

In light of last week's politech item on <...pornocasts aimed at
Palestinian TV...>, I thought you and politech listmemembers might
appreciate this op/ed from the pov of a Palestinian independent media
organizer. I'm forwarding it with permission from Mr. Kuttab, who is a
journalist from Jerusalem. He is director of the Institute of Modern Media
at Al Quds University, which operates Al Quds Educational Television (the
subject of this story).

All best wishes,
-----------
Xeni Jardin
freelance journalist + conference manager
xeni () xeni net | www.xeni.net | YIM: xeni_jardin

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The following appeared in the NY Times

April 6, 2002

Forced Off the Air in Ramallah

By DAOUD KUTTAB

AMMAN, Jordan

I still remember the day early in March 1997 when I was handed a piece of
paper issued by the Palestinian Authority allowing us at Al Quds
University's Institute of Modern Media to establish a local television
station in Ramallah. With lots of energy and almost no resources we began
the process of setting up Al Quds Educational Television. We wanted to
build an independent TV station that was neither a government mouthpiece
nor a commercial station that would live by game shows and shampoo.

It wasn't easy, but we were largely successful until this week.

Five years after launching our first broadcast - using a 40-watt
transmitter to televise a goldfish in a glass bowl swimming to the sounds
of Beethoven - our dreams have been shattered. Our station, which has
grown in size, viewership and programming, has been closed, our equipment
has been destroyed and Israeli soldiers are using our offices and studios.
No order was issued for this closure. We didn't violate any law. The
destruction was simply an act of unprovoked aggression.

>From early on the going was tough, but our existence until this week was
never in doubt. Our mission to stay independent received only limited
help. Many major international donors wanted to help the state-run
television as a means to boost the Palestinian Authority. But with
assistance from Palestinian foundations like the Welfare Association and
international organizations like the Open Society Foundation and the Ford
Foundation, we were able to create an alternative Palestinian television
station that produced public service programming like that on PBS and
C-Span.

Senior leaders in the Palestinian Authority were not happy with us. When
we started broadcasting live sessions of the elected  Palestinian
legislative council, the official Palestinian Authority TV station started
jamming us. When we aired a session that dealt with corruption in the
Palestinian Authority I was arrested and held in a Palestinian jail for
seven days. My
release, as a result of local and international pressure, helped secure
our station's continuity.

Since then, and despite some programming critical of the Palestinian
Authority, we have been left alone. We have dealt on the air with subjects
ranging from the physical and sexual abuse of children to the problems of
early marriage among young Palestinian women to the lack of respect for
people with disabilities. We have tackled issues like the environment,
public health and family planning. As part of the vision of the president
of Al Quds University, Sari Nuseibeh, we embarked in 1997  on a
groundbreaking partnership with Israeli educational television to produce
a Palestinian-Israeli version of "Sesame Street." The program was produced
with the aim of teaching both Israel and Palestinian children mutual
respect and tolerance.

Freedom of expression and presenting diverse opinions on social, economic
and political issues were our aims. We felt firmly that we were laying the
blocks for a cohesive, progressive society that would be the foundation of
an independent state.

None of this was easy in the face of the Israeli occupation. Yet we
refused to give in to despair. When the latest Israeli incursion occurred
we tried our best to keep doing our work despite the next to impossible
mission of running an educational television station in such times. Tanks
were rolling around our city, our staff were under curfew and we were cut
off from  each other except for telephone contact. The fact that our
station was on the edge of town spared us in the early days of the
incursion. We kept running our station with a mix of public service
messages (for example, showing phone numbers for medical services) plus
programs like a series we produced with Unicef to help parents and
children deal with the trauma of violence.

Then on Tuesday, Israeli soldiers came to the four-story Medical
Professions College building, where our studios are located, and began
destroying what we have worked to build. Every office in this educational
facility was broken into, equipment was destroyed. Our two remaining staff
members manning the broadcast were arrested and held for four hours before
being
released.

While being held, they saw television cameras and invaluable video
archives thrown from the fourth floor, where our equipment and studio are
located.

I am fortunate that my family and our staff have not been physically hurt.
When our fates are compared to those of others, we must be grateful. But
what happened was not just property damage, but an attempt to destroy our
dream of building a useful educational TV station and helping build a
viable state with healthy civic institutions.

It will not be easy to pick up the pieces after experiencing such
brutality. I have no doubt that we will rebuild our television station and
reclaim the hope that we had five years ago. At the same time I am
confident that our people, with the support of the international
community, will rise from the pain and build the foundation of a society
that can live in peace with its neighbors.


******************************




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