BIZARRE HAMAS MEDIA TOUR OF GAZA

Felliniesque Journalism (BackSpin)
Time magazine's Andrew Lee Butters describes Hamas' media tour of Gaza:

I've seen some tough things in the Middle East, but nothing has quite burned my retina like the sight of a hundred journalists bum-rushing the jail cells at Gaza City security headquarters to ask killers, thieves and child molesters what it's like to be in a Hamas-run prison. Talk about Felliniesque.

Butters may be more accurate than he realizes. Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning film, La Dolce Vita, contributed the word "paparazzi" to Western vernacular.

SEE ALSO: Gaza Media: Power Games Continue (BackSpin)
Hamas is cementing its control over Gaza media, banning Palestinian public TV from working in the strip. AFP writes:

"We have received a letter signed by the Hamas government information ministry, saying that they have decided to ban production or broadcast of our television programmes from the Gaza Strip," a senior official with the television station told AFP on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals....

Contacted by AFP, a senior official of the Hamas information ministry, which is not recognised by the international community, said that the Islamists wanted television to be subordinate to the authorities....

The move effectively leaves most of Gaza's electronic media in the hands of the Islamists. The only television is its station al-Aqsa, and the only radio is its station Sawt al-Aqsa and another channel close to the Islamic Jihad group, Sawt al-Quds.