Khaldon Azhari

TOKYO: The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) today condemned Saturday’s Israeli airstrike on a building in the Gaza Strip that housed offices of the Associated Press, Al-Jazeera and other media organizations.

“Journalists must be able to perform their duties free of intimidation and the threat of injury or loss of life, irrespective of where they are based and which story they are covering,” a statement issued by the FCCJ’s Freedom of the Press Committee said.

FCCJ also called on “all sides to ensure that journalists in the area, both staff and freelance, are permitted to go about their work so that they may continue to report on this complex and important story.”

The statement said FCCJ is relieved to learn that all employees evacuated the building safely before it was attacked, but notes that valuable equipment required to report on the ground in Gaza was destroyed.

FCCJ was established in mid forties last century and has been one of the leading hub for supporting journalists and media freedom in Japan and the world. It had newly 1600 members including about 300 correspondents from Japan and other parts of the world. It’s membership include media related staff, government officials and business people.