Judge orders member’s release, but she stays in jail
A JUDGE in Tel Aviv ordered the release of London Freelance Branch member Ewa Jasiewicz on Thursday 19 April - but the following day, just an hour after her bail was posted, the State appealed to the Supreme Court - so that Ewa would stay in jail over the weekend at least.

Ewa landed in Israel on 11 August and was detained by the authorities, who claimed that she was a political activist and that her reporting "would not be objective". After being held for eight days, a judge found that there was not enough evidence to hold her. This means, as her lawyer points out, that the "secret evidence" the security services held on her was "clearly no good".

The manouvre of appealing to the Supreme Court was "absolutely horrendous," the lawyer said: "a judge says there's not enough evidence to hold her, and then they appeal."

Ewa, who has reported for Red Pepper and Voices in the Wilderness, said in a phone call from jail quoted on Indymedia: "I feel frustrated, targeted, demonised. They're telling me how to do my job. "It's not enough to write a story about a situation or family, but I also must make change. I'm not just an observer. If I see a breach of human rights or international law I have a responsibility to intervene. "Democracy needs a plurality of opinion, a plurality of positions and voices. Attempts to homogenise public opinion or to constrict political expression sows the seeds of dictatorship."

The Israeli Embassy in London responded to the NUJ's press release condemning Ewa's detention by claiming that "Ms Jasiewicz has abused her NUJ Press Card in order to interfere with IDF [Israeli Defense Force] anti terrorist activities as a political activist for the International Solidarity Movement." Her lawyer says that the judge's ruling contradicts this.

Read Ewa's report on the murder of Baha Bahesh at  http://www.angelfire.com/nb/nablusweb/baha/baha_report_1.html