Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) condemned restrictions imposed on foreign journalists by Hezbollah. Hezbollah requires foreign journalists wishing to visit certain areas to first acquire a license from the party’s media office.

The Paris-based international NGO said that three Brazilian journalists from TV Globo, which is Latin America’s largest media network, were arrested on August 15, 2008 while preparing a report about a restaurant in Dahiyeh.

Reporter Marcos Losican, photographer Paolo Pemental and producer Tariq Salem were detained for five hours. Pemental was able to capture few pictures before his camera was confiscated. Losican reported that he and his two colleagues were released on the condition that they leave the country on the first possible flight.

-NOW Staff