Reporters Without Borders says country's treatment of journalists over Green Line caused it to fall.
By DAN IZENBERGidf soldier 224.88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Israel has fallen in the rankings of the controversial World Press Freedom Index that is published each year by the non-profit, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders organization.
According to the 2008 report which has just been released, Israel ranks 46 among 173 countries for its treatment of journalists within its own borders.
However, it has dropped to 149th place in the world rankings for its treatment of journalists over the Green Line. According to the report, "the Israel military's responsibility for the death of a Palestinian cameraman employed by Reuters in April and the impunity granted to the soldier who fired the fatal shell account for Israel's fall in the ranking."
The incident referred to by the organization occurred in the Gaza Strip on April 16, during a day of intense violence in which 17 Palestinians and three IDF soldiers were killed. According to a Reuters report, the cameraman, 23-year-old Fadel Shana, had stepped from his car to film an Israeli tank dug in several hundred meters away. Video from Shana's camera showed the tank opening fire. Two seconds after the shot raises dust around the tank's gun, the tape goes blank - seemingly at the moment Shana was hit.
Four months later, the military advocate-general, Brig.-Gen. Avichai Mandelblit, closed the investigation, determining that the conduct of the tank crew, which erroneously identified Shana as an armed gunman, was not out of line with procedure. No one was charged.
According to Reporters without Borders, the same six Middle East "champions of repression that are near the bottom of the world press freedom index every year, have confirmed their status this year again.
"Free expression continues to be no more than a dream in Iraq (158th), Syria (159th), Libya (160th), Saudi Arabia (161st, and the Palestinian territories (163rd) and Iran (166th.)"
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