Egyptian TV journalist defends interview with Schalit

[King_David]

Shahira Amin slammed by Israeli media for holding up kidnapped soldier’s return home and presenting him with inappropriate questions.
Talkbacks ()

Shahira Amin, the Egyptian state TV journalist who was the first person to interview Gilad Schalit minutes after he was turned over to Egyptian mediators, defended criticism over the interview on Tuesday.

Amin was roundly slammed by Israeli media for holding up the kidnapped soldier’s return home, for presenting him with loaded questions designed to highlight her country’s central role in the negotiating process and for asking harsh and inappropriate questions that Schalit was stumbling to answer.
According to Amin, who became known internationally when she publicly quit her job as a state TV news anchor in protest during last February’s uprising in Egypt, said that she had tried obtaining information from a Red Cross official about Schalit’s health before interviewing him but was told merely that the soldier was “in good spirits.”

“I feel very sorry for him, like a mother to a child,” she said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. “I saw him and I saw the Palestinians and I feel deep compassion for all of them. It’s enough of conflict and I think that it’s time we all strived to live in peace.

“I did apologize to him for keeping him waiting and I told him that the world wanted to know how he was feeling,” said Amin. “I did ask him what he thought of Egypt’s efforts and if he had a message for the Egyptian people,” said Amin, who maintained that the questions were not forced upon her.

“I felt that after so many attempts by others to mediate this exchange, it was important to highlight Egypt’s role in bringing this about.”
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=242363

[King_David]

1. When thay say : journalist

In reference to the broadcast clip,

They mean ''journalist '' or Egyptian government employee.

[shaayecanaan]

2. I thought the interview was in extremely poor taste...

and perhaps illegal, given that the Geneva Conventions prohibit prisoners of war from being exploited in this way.

I should note that Western "embedded" journalists were guilty of much the same thing when they would broadcast images or attempt to interview detainees captured by coalition troops.