FREE SPEECH, HAMAS STYLE

Gaza journalists get threats over Hamas coverage.
GAZA (Reuters) - A handful of Palestinian journalists have reported receiving death threats for their critical coverage of the Islamic militant group Hamas since it began running the government in March, a press group said on Monday.

The Palestinian Journalists’ Union said seven journalists in the Gaza Strip, mostly sympathetic to President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, had received threats by e-mail, phone or fax — made in Hamas’s name — to harm or kill them for their coverage.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denied the group had threatened journalists, saying the calls were a fraudulent attempt to “damage Hamas’s image”. He urged security forces to investigate.