Press group calls for Israeli accountability in media deaths

By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — An international press-freedom group says the Israeli military has systematically evaded accountability in the deaths of 20 journalists over the past two decades. In a report Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Israel typically launches slow and opaque investigations that have never resulted in prosecution or punishment. The group issued its report ahead of the one-year anniversary of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh — a Palestinian- American journalist with the Al Jazeera satellite channel who was killed while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank. The army says Abu Akleh was likely killed by Israeli fire, but that the shooting was accidental. It has not taken any disciplinary action in the shooting.