If those Syrians want a fight, let them go fight Israel, not ABS-CBN

The police and the Department of Foreign Affairs should not get soft on the four Syrians who attacked a video "crew" of the television network ABS-CBN in Angeles City, broke the windshield of their "press" vehicle clearly marked as belonging to ABS-CBN, and damaging their TV camera – which the Syrians apparently wanted to seize.

So what, if one of the protagonists in that violent incident claims to be a "consul general" of Syria? This doesn’t excuse his participation, with his group, in such violence and rowdyism. Kick him out of the country, I’d say!

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin, an experienced diplomat and our former Ambassador to Hungary, has already clarified that this bozo, Mohammad Issam El-Debs, is just an "honorary consul general". Whether El-Debs is merely "honorary" or a certified diplomat, our government should declare this troublemaker "persona non grata", and have done with it.

The ABS-CBN personnel say that they were merely cruising Fields Avenue (the traditional happy-happy and bar-cum-red light section of Angeles City) at 11:15 p.m. last Tuesday to take sequences of the night life there.

It seems that while they were panning their camera over the scene they took footage of the four Syrian men patronizing a bar in the district. The angry Syrians accosted the ABS-CBN reporter, Rosemay Castañeda, cameraman Isagani Taoatao, and their driver William Natividad, and demanded that they turn over the tape from their camera. Ms. Castañeda states that she explained they were merely "shooting" the facade of the bars and had no intention of taking any videos of their group, promising to delete their faces from any film footage. Despite this, one of the Syrians attempted to seize the camera.

The reporter and her crew tried to evade this confrontation by speeding off in their vehicle, but the Syrians gave chase in another car, caught up with the ABS-CBN vehicle, then started attacking it and roughing up cameraman Taoatao (who had to be treated later in a local hospital).

Such a violent assault on journalists who were only on a routine assignment is both inexcusable and unacceptable. Those Syrian roughnecks, unless they prefer to be jailed here, ought to be shipped back to the Middle East. If they want a fight, let them go over and tackle the Israelis, not try to kick Filipinos around. They mustn’t be surprised if we kick back – hard.

What were they doing in a bar, anyway? I thought good Muslims were supposed to abhor hard liquor or all sorts of alcoholic drink. They should leave getting drunk and carousing to bad Christians and other infidel.

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The Israelis, for their part, after stubbornly attempting to hinder the mission of a United Nations fact-finding team just sent over to investigate whether or not a "massacre" had occurred in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, in the West Bank, was pressured by international criticism – and probably behind the scenes by the United States – to permit the fact-finders to enter the area.

The Jerusalem government continues to insist that its Israeli forces had committed no massacre, and that all fatalities and casualties (including the deaths of 33 IDF soldiers) had been the result of running battles and not a deliberate and ruthless targeting of Palestinian civilians.

The trouble with the Israelis is that they are their own worst enemies when dealing with media and the "outside world".

Yesterday, as Chairman of the Philippine National Committee of the International Press Institute (IPI), I received a report on "Press Freedom Violations in the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict" from our headquarters in Vienna.

Here’s our organization’s candid assessment, sent to all IPI editors, publishers and media executives worldwide (through Anthony Löwstedt):

"Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on 28 September 2000, journalists have figured heavily among the victims. According to IPI’s research, six journalists have been killed and there have been another 59 incidents in which journalists were injured by gunfire or shelling. Throughout the conflict, journalists have been the subject to deliberate assassination, targeted shootings, beatings, harassment, censorship, threats and obstruction in carrying out their profession. In addition, media outlets have been targeted and destroyed and broadcasting equipment seized and confiscated. The attacks have come from a number of different Israeli and Palestinian groups including soldiers, police, settlers and civilians.

"At least 81 percent of the violations against press freedom were perpetrated by Israelis and the overwhelming majority of targeted journalists have been of Palestinian origin."

Sanamagan. This is ironic since many of the Israelis are descendants of the persecuted Jews of World War II and even of survivors of the concentration camps of the Nazi tyranny. Doesn’t this kind of attitude tempt a comparison with "ethnic cleansing"?

"In December," the report continues, "when (the Israelis were) pressed by a range of NGOs to investigate the multiple charges of repression levelled against it, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) found only one of its soldiers guilty of violation transgressions against journalists. He was not punished, but his superior officer was reprimanded. None of the investigations conducted by IDF concerned the shootings of the Palestinian journalists, five of whom died of their injuries."

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There’s more:

"On the basis of IPI’s research, the IDF committed at least 165 press freedom violations during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, including at least four killings. These attacks on press freedom make up at least 75 percent of the total press freedom violations committed since the start."

"Tellingly, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been quoted as saying that ‘winning the struggle is 80-90 percent dependent on the media’s effectiveness.’ Although the meaning of the media’s ‘effectiveness’ is unclear in this context, what is clear is that the IDF has implicitly condoned the attacks on the media by effectively promising soldiers immunity for such crimes."

"After the large-scale invasion of the West Bank by the IDF in March and April 2002, Western coverage has intensified as Israel sought to exclude the press from all areas subject to the incursion. The IPI’s (statistical) report provides disturbing evidence that press freedom has become a casualty in this increasingly bloody conflict."

As early as April 9, the IPI sent me a complaint lodged not only by our global network of editors and media executives, but also the Foreign Press Association (Jerusalem), the Committee to Protect Journalists (New York), the International Federation of Journalists (Brussels), Reporters sans Frontieres (Paris), and the World Association of Newspapers (Paris).

The statement went: "The undersigned organizations call on the government of Israel to allow the foreign media access to the cities of the West Bank. The prolonged attempt to seal off entire cities, where hundreds of thousands of people live, has been excessive, unjustifiable and utterly counter productive."

"We furthermore call on Israeli officials to desist from public attacks on the foreign press in which irresponsible generalizations have been employed to criticize the way we conduct our business. They only undermine the freedom of the press and endanger journalists."

The Palestinian jihadis were not painted as blameless either.

The same complaint declared: "At the same time we call on all Palestinian factions to cease efforts to confiscate materials or intimidate journalists. Attempts to suppress unflattering visuals are utterly unacceptable. We call on the Palestinian authorities to reject such tactics unequivocally."

The press, obviously, is always under fire – from both sides.

In this light, it’s timely that UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura will be here in Manila on May 3 to launch "World Press Freedom Day" (a worldwide observance, as the title indicates) from our country. This honors the fact that, for all our faults, we proudly have a free press in this nation.

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THE ROVING EYE . . . I’ve been lately on the receiving end of naughty quips from friends and professional colleagues, such as "May the Force be with you!" (Great shades of Star Wars!) Geez, even the name of that movie series is punningly coincidental. I’ve refrained, of course, from commenting on this entire "Freedom Force" brouhaha. No, guys, the Force isn’t with me, nor am I with the Force. I don’t believe in collective leadership. Nor, as many columns of mine have already made clear, have I ever believed in COPA. So there.