Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi on Tuesday evening ordered that a camera and broadcasting equipment which were confiscated from The Associated Press news agency be returned, until a different decision is made by the Ministry of Defense.
Karhi stressed that the decision to return the equipment was made despite the fact that the agency "transmitted broadcasts to Al Jazeera about the locations of our forces in the northern Gaza Strip while putting them at risk."
"Since the Ministry of Defense wishes to examine the matter of the broadcasts from these locations vis-a-vis the risk to our forces, I have now ordered to cancel the act and return the equipment to the AP agency, until a different decision is made by the Ministry of Defense."
AP, the world's largest news agency, claimed earlier on Tuesday that the Ministry of Communications had confiscated its equipment, including a camera, a tripod, a modem and two microphones.
The news agency stated that Israel had informed it that the decision to confiscate the equipment was made within the authority granted to the Ministry of Communications in the recently approved Al Jazeera Law.
AP employees in Israel were presented with a letter signed by Karhi, which they claimed constitutes "an offensive use of the new broadcasting law by the Israeli government."
The news agency called on the Ministry of Communications "to return the equipment and allow us to broadcast live immediately. We comply with the rules of Israel's military censorship."
The Ministry of Communications initially claimed that "the confiscated camera illegally broadcasts the northern Gaza Strip live on Al Jazeera, including the activities of the IDF forces and endangers our soldiers."
The Ministry further claimed that "the AP agency was already warned last week that according to the law and the government's decision they are not allowed to provide broadcasts to Al Jazeera, however they decided to continue broadcasting on the channel which causes a real harm to the security of the state".
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House was “looking into” AP’s claims and added, “Obviously, this is concerning. And so we want to look into it. But we’ve always been clear the importance of the work that you all do, the work that journalists do.”
Jean-Pierre declined to condemn the move when asked to do so. She said she wanted to be “mindful” but reiterated the importance of journalism and the essential role it plays in a democracy.
“We stand firm in our belief in making sure that journalists have the ability and the right to do the job,” Jean-Pierre said.