Barkat says Jerusalem to add security cameras around capital

The remark came in response to a request from Jerusalem journalist Haim Shibi that Barkat use his influence to stop police from impeding photojournalists.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
The ‘ambassadors’ with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat (photo credit: Courtesy)
The ‘ambassadors’ with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Jerusalem will triple the number of hidden cameras in the streets, Mayor Nir Barkat said on Monday at the opening of the International Conference on Freedom of the press hosted by the Jerusalem Press Club.
Barkat said that more cameras will be place throughout the city “so that we can have more evidence…”
The remark came in response to a request from Jerusalem journalist Haim Shibi that Barkat use his influence to stop police from impeding photojournalists who are frequently harassed, attacked, and prevented from getting close to the scene of the action.
When Barkat tried to explain that sometimes photojournalists are kept at bay to insure that evidence remains intact it provoked an angry response from some of the journalists from 26 countries who came to Jerusalem to attend the conference.
The police must be subject to scrutiny, they insisted.
Barkat said that since he had assumed the mayoralty, he had abolished censorship. The problem, he said, is not freedom of the press, but on the press picking up a rumor and publishing it without doing due diligence.
Rumors take on lives of their own and sometimes lead to violence.