As Israeli authorities prepared to expel Ma'an News Agency's chief English editor later this week, media rights groups have blasted his ongoing detention as an assault on freedom of the press.
Jared Malsin was originally scheduled to be deported without a hearing on Thursday morning. Protests by US authorities in Tel Aviv resulted in a temporary reversal, and an injunction filed by Ma'an delayed the expulsion until at least Sunday.
Reporters Without Borders "condemns the detention and imminent expulsion of US journalist Jared Malsin, who has worked for the past two years as an editor with Ma'an, an independent Palestinian news agency," the group said on Wednesday in a statement, the first of many that it and others would issue on behalf of the top journalist at Ma'an's English Desk.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which monitors freedom of the press worldwide, urged Israel to refrain from taking punitive action against reporters over specific content in their work. "Israel cannot hide behind the pretext of security to sideline journalists who have done nothing more than maintain an editorial line that the authorities dislike," the organization said.
Indeed, court documents indicated that Malsin's detention was directly related to his work at the news agency, quoting airport officials as noting that he authored articles "inside the territories," among them some which "criticized the State of Israel."
.....Meanwhile, two influential Palestinian media groups denounced the decision. ....
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