U.S. Journalist Held for 'Broadcasting Beirut Demo to Haaretz'
Lebanese security forces overnight detained an American freelance journalist on suspicion of broadcasting live footage of the central Beirut clashes to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
In a statement, the State Security agency said the U.S. citizen was at the scene of the protest near the parliament building, a location from which someone was broadcasting live to the Israeli paper.
State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat referred the journalist to Military Intelligence for questioning and investigation, the agency said.
The area outside Parliament was packed with journalists, many of them correspondents for international news agencies. International coverage of the three-month old protests in Lebanon has picked up in the past two days as the violence worsened.
An eyewitness, speaking on condition of anonymity fearing reprisals, said the young man was taken away by men dressed in black who put him in a civilian car and drove away.
Media reports meanwhile said the American journalist was not the one broadcasting to Haaretz and that the Israeli daily’s website was using footage from the Reuters news agency.
Source: Naharnet, Associated Press
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