Ramallah - (18/8/2021) - The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms "MADA" issued a report on the Israeli arrests of journalists in Palestine.
The report, titled "The Israeli Occupation's Arrests of Journalists – A Pretext for Suppressing Freedoms", covers what MADA center monitored and documented of Israeli arrests of journalists during the period from the beginning of 2016 until the beginning of last May 2021 (five and a half years). The report seeks to shed light on the various types of Israeli attacks targeting media freedoms in Palestine, which include about 15 types of violations, arrest being the most dangerous of violations on media freedoms.
The report shows that a total of 169 journalists were arrested or detained by the Israeli occupation, which represents more than 10% of the total Israeli attacks against media freedoms documented by MADA during the reporting period. The report also states that physical attacks against journalists constituted more than half of all types of violations.
The report indicates that (male) journalists constituted the largest percentage of the total victims of these arrests (about 91%) compared to 9% of female journalists, which is mainly due to the composition of the journalistic body in Palestine (women journalists constitute about 25-30%), in addition to the fact that the work of most of the female journalists are concentrated in jobs that do not require being in the field, where most of the attacks - including many of the arrests and detentions - usually occur.
The report reviews examples of the physical and psychological attacks that journalists are subjected to, the practices and policies during their arrest and detention, the pretexts used by the occupation authorities to justify an arrest, and the repetition of the same pretexts and practices in dealing with them as a form of punishment and as part of a process aimed at keeping them away from covering events and documenting Israeli attacks, and even to keep them away from journalistic work in general.
To download the report: https://cutt.us/Dqh4J
