Ramallah / PNN - After an Al Watan Television crew was seriously harassed in Ramallah, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) issued a condemnation.

As PNN reported yesterday, Israeli forces detained the crew at a flying checkpoint near Sorda Village. The journalists had been filming at Birzeit University when they learned of the suffering of hundreds of people at the checkpoint that had been imposed shortly before.

Reporter Nizar Habash, reporter Nadia Sarsour, cameraman Khalid Melhem, cameraman Suleiman Abu Sorour and crew assistant Ibrahim Badwan were detained at the checkpoint in northern Ramallah around noon on Tuesday.

Habash told MADA that when the crew arrived to the scene they began walking from their vehicle to film. Soldiers prevented the filming and took a camera battery. The Israelis were screaming at the TV crew and told them they were being held there.

After half an hour they told the soldiers that they would inform the media about their detention. This garnered their release, said Habash. The camera battery was returned and the journalists were told that they would be arrested if they filmed the checkpoint.

In its condemnation MADA considered the detention of the crew from Al Watan TV, and the prevention of filming, blatant violations of media freedoms. The Center issued a call at the same time to the international community to pressure the Israeli government to cease its violations of freedom of speech in Palestine.