BBC now "banned" from Gaza

Apparently the BBC has been banned from reporting from the Gaza strip.

Jon William's writing on the Editors blog says that

Aleem Maqbool,Ala Johnson's replacement, has been based in Ramallah. But for the past 18 months be has made regular trips to Gaza. Not this week. For the past six days, the BBC and other media organisations have been turned back by the Israeli authorities at the Erez crossing. We're in good company. The heads of a number of EU diplomatic missions have also been refused entry. No explanation has been given, despite repeated requests.

The price of Freedom of the Press

The news that the BBC'S Gaza correspondent has gone missing and feared kidnapped from the streets of Gaza city once gain brings home the dangers faced by journalists.

Former Times Editor Harold Evans wrote a good article in the Observer at the weekend entitled,

When a journalist dies, we are all responsible

In it he points out

The first shocking thing is just how many are dying. The International News Safety Institute, a coalition of media organisations, press freedom groups, unions and humanitarian campaigners, calculates that if we include all news media personnel - translators, fixers, office staff, drivers - no fewer than 1,000 have died in the last 10 years.
The second shocking thing is to learn how many of them were murdered, most of them local beat reporters whose names do not resonate in the media.
The majority of journalists' deaths are not bad luck. They are planned assassinations. They have been targeted, sought out for death at home for a very simple reason: they did their jobs of seeking the truth. Rarely do these local crimes attract international attention.