The Press! The Press! The Freedom of the Press! posted by Richard Seymour

Ewa Jasiewicz, a British free-lance journalist, is being held by Israel pending a hearing on whether she can be deported. According to the government there, she is a political activist whose reporting is biased. Noticeably, this response is not all that dissimilar to that offered by Colombia when it is accused of deporting journalists. She is, of course, a political activist, and a biased observer. The picture below shows what happens when she pisses off the Coalition in Iraq by asking an awkward question:



The trouble is that Israel and its defenders constantly repeat with wearisome predictability that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Now, that isn't any trick provided you don't have to put up with occupation or CIA/MI6 sponsored coups. But it seems a little incongruent for a nation so concerned with its democratic credentials to refuse access to a journalist simply because she says the wrong things, and isn't likely to fall under a steam-roller any time soon. Then again, as Mordechai Vanunu can tell you, the Israeli government prefers to err on the side of secrecy.