Hamas closes Al-Arabiya and Maan in Gaza

Hamas Attorney General Ismail Jaber Gaza – Mohammed Habib The Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas temporarily shut down the offices of the Palestinian Maan News Agency and Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV in Gaza on Thursday, accusing them of distributing false news. Gaza’s Attorney-General made the move following anger about the agencies’ reports regarding the relation of Hamas, which leads Gaza’s government, to Egyptian politics.
The decision came ahead of reports on Friday that ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi was being detained for questioning over suspected collaboration with Hamas, a claim the group denies.
Gaza’s Information Ministry launched an investigation after Maan translated and shared news from unidentified Israeli sources claiming that leading members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood had escaped to Gaza during the revolution of January 2011.
The ministry said the story was untrue and accused Maan of trying to drag Gaza into the Egyptian crisis in order to increase attacks against Gazans by the Egyptian media.
Palestinians have come under fire from journalists in Egypt for their alleged role in pro-Morsi activism, in what one NGO has described as a ‘hostile campaign’.
Commenting on the accusations, Maan's editor-in-chief Nasser Lahham said: "Some people in Gaza seemingly went mad after the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted in Egypt.
"They take any possible occasion to wage harsh attacks against Maan News Agency for no reason.”
He stated that Maan had lodged several official complaints about the decision, including to the leader of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.
Addressing the Hamas government, Lahham said: "We challenge them to prove that Maan tells lies in its reports.
"We translate reports from other languages to serve our readers. When [Hamas] likes the translated reports because they contain criticism of the Palestinian president, the Palestinian Authority or the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organisation], they quote Maan and publish the reports on their websites. But when the translated reports do not serve their interests, they go crazy and start wailing unjustifiably," he added.
But Hamas government spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein said media outlets were at fault for attacking Palestinians.
Posting on his Facebook page, al-Ghussein accused some Egyptian and Arab satellite channels, along with Maan news agency, of lacking professionalism and spreading hatred against Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the West Bank-based Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the attacks on Maan and Al-Arabiya by both Hamas officials and journalists affiliated to the Islamist movement.
The union said in a statement that direct and implied threats by Hamas leaders to journalists working for Maan and Al-Arabiya were part of a campaign against media outlets “which shape public opinion and uncover the truth”.
Any genuine complaint against individual journalists or organizations should be made to the union itself, which will make a professional judgment, the statement continued.