Palestinian Authority Censors, Returns Videotape
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday returned a videotape it had confiscated two days earlier from Associated Press, but portions showing a militant Islamic rally were deleted.
About 1,500 Palestinians, many supporters of the militant Islamic group Hamas, marched in a Gaza Strip refugee camp on Friday, burning Israeli flags and carrying a poster of Osama bin Laden, named by the American government as the leading suspect in the terror attacks in the United States.
After the rally, plainclothes Palestinian police questioned journalists and confiscated videotape and film from at least four news organizations, including a videotape taken from an Associated Press Television News cameraman. AP protested and demanded its return.
Reuters news service said that the Palestinian Authority returned film taken from a still photographer and that no deletions were made. Other journalists involved could not be reached.
The Palestinian Authority gave the video back Sunday, but two separate parts of the six-minute tape, totaling about 45 seconds, were taken out.
Palestinian police said Friday that the rally in the Nusseirat refugee camp took place without a permit. “The Palestinian police confiscated media material which documented illegal acts,” the police statement said.
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