Surreal:
Jerusalem "peace radio" staff under house arrest
An Israeli court placed under house arrest on Tuesday seven employees of an English-language radio station set up to foster dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Ministry of Communications shut the South African-backed RAM FM's Jerusalem studio on Monday, saying it did not have a license to broadcast. RAM FM has denied it was breaking the law.
Seven employees including journalists and technicians were initially detained for about 24 hours. The Jerusalem magistrates court released them on bail but put them under a week's house arrest while police continue to investigate.
"They were accused of establishing and operating a broadcast station without a permit ... obviously we have denied the allegations," said the station's lawyer Asher Rabinowitz.
Set up a year ago with backing from a South African station that aimed to foster racial reconciliation after apartheid, RAM FM says it hopes its mix of phone-ins, music and news can help build links over the airwaves between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Jerusalem Foreign Press Association called the detention of the staff "absurd". A senior government official said the RAM FM arrests were not politically motivated and related purely to the license issue.
The station continued to broadcast out of its main studio in the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah.
But don't worry. This is simply a matter of increased policing of "pirate radio":
Israel has been trying to police broadcasting frequencies more strictly. Pirate stations have been accused of interfering with air traffic control radios at the country's main airport.
Right.
It will be really interesting to see how this turns out. Somehow, the assertion that RAM FM is a "pirate station" seems highly dubious, at best.
I'll keep Googling for updates over the next week or so.
UPDATE: Haaretz provides more information on RAM FM and its current situation.
RAM FM staffers say the station operates legally, and that they are looking into the legal ramifications of the police's action.
[...]
"The reality is that if RAM FM was a pirate station, we wouldn't have invested $2 million in it, and we wouldn't have launched a massive advertising campaign. Pirate stations stay under the radar; they don't have advertising campaigns. But we know that we are legal. Both of our frequencies (93.6 and 87.7) are licensed by the Palestinian Authority and we pay for those licenses. "The Jerusalem studio and the Ramallah studio are linked by fiber optics. Everything that is produced in Jerusalem is sent back to Ramallah and broadcast from there. Nothing is actually broadcast from Jerusalem. "We feel very strongly about our mission and this has just made us more determined," he said. "The show must go on." Martin B., a blue-eyed, 33-year old Londoner, exemplifies the team of adventurous and highly-motivated young announcers who entered a fray that is foreign to them.
[...]
The station employs Israeli announcers and writers, like Mike Brand, alongside Palestinians like Arda Aghazarian, who presents a daily, lunch program with Brand. This attempt to maintain balance is also evident in the content of news bulletins.
"We won't use a term like 'terrorist,' which is considered offensive in Palestinian eyes, nor will we use 'freedom fighter,'" said station director Odeh-Gangat, adding that the station attempts to provide in-depth coverage of issues ignored by Israeli media.
"A few days ago, a settler killed a Palestinian near Ramallah, after he took out a knife," she said. "We immediately reported the event but later sent a reporter to Bir Zeit University, where the Palestinian was a student, to shed light on the story from a Palestinian perspective. We will always try to bring both versions of the story. We do not have a political agenda. We mainly try to present facts on the ground in the most objective way possible."
Can't have that!
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