NUJ and IFJ demand inquiry into Israeli attack on Gaza flotilla

There should be an "independent and credible" inquiry into this week's Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla that left nine people dead, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have said.

The organisations claim that Israel has attempted to prevent "any independent reporting of its attack on the convoy and on the deaths, injuries and detention which followed".

The union reports that a journalist from the Iranian television station Press TV, Hassan Ghani, has not been able to contact his employers, friends or family. The NUJ believes he may be among the activists deported to Turkey but say it is "profoundly concerned that professional reporters such as Hassan have effectively been silenced by the Israeli authorities during and since the raid".

"Like all the activists, they have had phones, cameras and all their broadcasting equipment confiscated and have effectively been held incommunicado for more than 72 hours," the organisation says in its news release.

Yesterday [Wednesday] the International Press Institute (IPI) reported that a number of foreign journalists, who had been detained by the authorities were among the hundreds of activists deported. "However, several journalists remained in custody at 15:30 CET," the organisation says.

There may have been as many around journalists aboard the flotilla, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported, The organisation has "independently" verified 20 names of those taken into custody and released journalists are reporting harassment by soldiers and the destruction of their equipment, says the CPJ.

The IPI reported that Kate Geraghty from the Sydney Morning Herald said she had been "hit in the upper arm by some form of weapon" when the Israelis boarded the boat and thought the weapon might have been a stun gun.

Earlier this week, when calling for the journalists' release, Aidan White, IFJ general secretary said: "The Israeli authorities must not play cat and mouse with professional journalists who are doing their job, not just for the company they serve but in the service of a worldwide audience."

Al Jazeera English correspondent Jamal Elshayyal made this broadcast from the Mavi Marmari vessel on Monday, before the international broadcaster lost communication with the ships:

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