Journalists' body attacks Hamas for Gaza ban

GAZA (Reuters) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) rebuked the Islamist Hamas group that runs the Gaza Strip for banning on Monday a gathering of Palestinian reporters who hoped to discuss ethics in journalism.

The meeting in Gaza was to have been half of a workshop, with other Palestinian journalists expected to join in from the West Bank city of Ramallah over a video link.

The owners of the Gaza restaurant that was to be the venue for the meeting said an official of the Hamas government press office ordered them not to host the journalists.

Aidan White, general secretary of the Brussels-based IFJ, which promotes media freedom around the world, had called the ban on the workshop a "scandal", an IFJ official said.

Hamas's press office said in a statement it had prohibited the event because the IJC had not coordinated the event with Gaza's rulers. Rights groups have criticised both Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its secular rival Fatah in the West Bank over what journalists say are infringements of their freedoms.