The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the military trial of a New York-based Lebanese reporter charged with "dealing with the enemy" for participating in a panel discussion with an Israeli official, said a report by the Earth Times News Service.
Raghida Dergham, the New York bureau chief for the London-based daily Al Hayat and a noted commentator on Arab affairs, is being tried in a Lebanese military court. A warrant is currently out for the Lebanese-American citizen's arrest, and she has been declared a fugitive. She did not appear at the first trial hearing in Beirut on June 1.
The charges against Dergham stem from her participation in a May 19, 2000, panel discussion sponsored by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, DC. The panel included Uri Lubrani, formerly the Israeli government's coordinator of activities in southern Lebanon. The discussion focused on Middle East politics, with special reference to Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
CPJ said the military indictment accused Dergham of being "a participant as a journalist in a debate that was arranged by a member of the enemy at the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy." It added that "her act constituted a crime based on Article 278 of the Penal Code."
At the June 1 session, the military court adjourned until November 30 in order to give Dergham the opportunity to appear before the court, AFP reported.
CPJ's sources argue that the ongoing harassment of Dergham, including these latest charges, is a response to her critical coverage last year of Lebanon's ongoing dispute with the UN over the demarcation of the Lebanese-Israeli border.
"These charges are absurd," said CPJ Middle East program coordinator Joe Campagna. "We view the treason case against Dergham as part of a pattern of state harassment intended to punish an independent journalist for doing her job.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
