July 4, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 3,1424

PARIS, July 3: The The Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has condemned the Israeli government for having announced on Tuesday that it was cutting off all links with the BBC on the grounds that it “systematically demonizes” Israel and carries reports “verging on anti-Semitism.”

Already last year, making use of irate terms, says RSF spokesman Severine Cazes-Tschann, the Israeli government accused CNN and the BBC of having a “pro-Palestinian bias,” and proceeded to attempt to remove CNN from Israel’s leading home cable TV service providers.

Describing the latest accusations against the BBC as “disgraceful and pathetic,” RSF secretary-general Robert Menard said the Israeli government “has trouble accepting the editorial freedom of certain news media when it doesn’t serve its interests.”

ARRESTS IN IRAN: The Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has condemned the arrest of another journalist in Iran, Ali Akrami, which brings to at least 17 the number of newsmen arbitrarily detained in the country.

Through its spokesman Virginie Locussol, the Paris-based organization said it did not know where the journalists were being held. Lawyers and relatives of those arrested have told RSF that they have been unable to get any word from them as of yet.