Hamas yesterday banned the official Palestinian Authority television station from making or broadcasting any programs in the Gaza Strip. PATV has been under the control of Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas for the past year. Hamas had accused the TV station of being critical of it.
The Palestinian journalists’ union, based in Ramallah in the West Bank, slammed the decision. “We condemn with the utmost severity the terrorism of the [Hamas] government … and the repression organized against journalistic freedoms,” it said in a statement.
Journalist unions and media organizations in the West are too busy criticizing Israel to notice.
The remaining television station in Gaza (al-Aqsa) and radio stations (Sawt al-Aqsa and Sawt al-Quds) are both strongly Islamist. Sawt al-Quds has broadcast a sermon praising the London terrorist attacks.