By IRNA,
London : Reuters news agency has called for an inquiry into the killing of one of its cameramen, Fadel Shana, in Gaza by the Israeli regime’s military fire.
“I’ve called for an immediate and complete investigation into the incident. We know, of course, that journalism is a dangerous business,” said the editor-in-chief of the London-based agency David Schlesinger.
Speaking on the last day before Reuters takeover by the Canadian- based Thomson Corporation, Schlesinger said he could but reflect on our “more than a century and a half of bravery and sacrifice in the service of the news.”
Shana, aged 23, was killed while covering the latest Israeli military incursions into Gaza in which 16 other Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were also reportedly killed.
Reuters reported Thursday that medical examination of the body confirmed that he was killed by metal darts from an Israeli tank shell.
The cameraman was said to have stepped from his car to film an Israeli tank several hundred meters away when it opened fire. Reuters soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed, 25, also sustained a shrapnel wound.
Last October, an Israeli soldier was reported to have shot a Reuters photographer in the leg in Gaza. Two of the agency’s journalists were also wounded by an Israeli tank shell in the enclave in 2003.
Also in 2003, British journalist James Miller was shot dead by the Israeli forces while filming a documentary in Gaza for Channel 4 television.