: State television's RAI Tre station showed some of the photos
: and graphic snippets of video during the 7 p.m. newscast
: Wednesday.
: RAI Uno did the same an hour later, even though complaints had
: already started pouring in. By the end of the 30-minute
: broadcast, RAI Uno's news director, Gad Lerner, was on the
: air apologizing for images "not only unwatchable but
: violent."

: Called on the carpet Thursday, Lerner and his RAI Tre
: counterpart Nino Rizzo Nervo both admitted they didn't know

: what was going to be on the broadcasts.

***

Italian TV is in trouble in Israel over a letter written to Palestinian authorities by a state TV representative criticizing another station's broadcast of footage depicting a Palestinian lynching of Israeli soldiers?/police?

Does this indicate an anti-Jewish bias? An anti-Zionist bias? Is this related in anyway to the Rogue Butterfly post to which this is an attenuated response?

I still want to know what LSN is.

vM

***
Thursday, October 19 2000 20:41 21 Tishri 5761

Italian journalist loses press card
By Jonathan Krashinsky

JERUSALEM (October 19) - Italian state television (RAI) representative Riccardo Cristiano lost both his Government Press Office press card and his job in Jerusalem with RAI yesterday, after the Palestinian Authority published his letter criticizing a rival's decision to broadcast footage of the lynching of two IDF soldiers in Ramallah last week.

The letter appeared in the October 16 edition of Al-Hayat al-Jadida, a Gaza daily, after RAI journalists were accused by the PA of filming the October 12 lynching, which Palestinian police attempted to conceal from the press.

Palestinian police confiscated film and videos from some of the journalists covering the mob killings, but a few managed to get their film out, including the private Italian Mediaset network.

In his letter addressed to the PA, Cristiano asked Palestinian officials to help dissipate rumors that the footage was broadcast by his employer.

"Let us emphasize that it is not at all the case, as we respect the work arrangements between journalists and the Palestinian Authority," Cristiano wrote. "Thank you and rest assured that this is not our way, and we would never do such a thing."

The letter went on to offer nebulous congratulations and "dear blessings" to his "dear friends in Palestine."

It accused an unnamed rival Italian agency of having produced the film of the lynching, which Cristiano referred to only as "the events."

Reaction to the letter was swift. The GPO responded by announcing the suspension of Cristiano's GPO press card early yesterday afternoon, citing his violation of "the rules of press ethics as is accepted in democratic societies" and demanding an explanation for the letter. The GPO's Danny Seaman, who claimed that the letter had only been written because the PA had "threatened the life" of an RAI producer, accused Cristiano of knuckling under to PA pressure.

"If anyone in Israel had threatened the life of a producer in this manner," Seaman said, "there would have been an outcry."

Nevertheless, he explained, the withdrawal of the press card was not a suppression of Cristiano's right to work in Israel.

"The GPO press card makes one's job easier, but... if he still wants to work here, he can work here."

Soon after Cristiano's press card was revoked, however, a terse statement to the press was released by RAI's general director, Pier Luigi Celli, announcing RAI's "immediate decision" to recall Cristiano to Rome.

"He will no longer work for Jerusalem," Celli stated. "RAI had no knowledge of the letter and its content... [nor did RAI] agree with the content of the aforementioned letter."

RAI representatives in Israel had no further comment.

News agencies contributed to this report.