MADA:229 violations of media freedoms in Palestine during 2013

 

Ramallah - 5th March 2014: The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) held its annual press conference to review its Annual Report on the status of Media Freedoms in Palestine during 2013. The conference was held at MADA’s headquarter in Ramallah.

 

The Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr. Ghazi Hanania, began the conference by expressing that 2013 witnessed a serious escalation of violations against journalists by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in west Bank, who violate the basic right of freedom of expression that is guaranteed in the international declaration of human right under article 19, and omitting commitment to international laws and acting above the law.

 

Dr. Hanania added: “The reported Israeli violations do not mean the absence of Palestinian violations against media freedoms. Although we always confirmed that the Israeli violations against Palestinian journalists are the most dangerous, life threatening, and the most frequent, but the Palestinian violations are still high in numbers, recording a slight increase during 2013 especially in Gaza, where the number of violations were higher than in the West Bank. In the west bank media freedoms violations decreased comparing to 2012”.

 

Dr. Hanania then explained that the Fatah-Hamas division still constitutes a fertile ground for violations to arise in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and MADA and other institutions defending human rights and Media freedoms have continuously demanded the end of the Palestinian internal division  because it’s still a main cause of the continuing Palestinian violations against media freedoms, in addition the events in Egypt on the 30th of June and beginning of July had negative impacts on the development of media freedoms in Palestine as well.

 

Dr. Hanaia thanked Open Society Foundation(OSF) for supporting MADA’ s monitoring and documenting  of media freedoms program.

 

151 media freedoms violations committed by Israeli Occupation and 78 by Palestinian parties

 

MADA’s general director Mr. Mousa Rimawi discussed the statistics of violations against Media Freedoms reported by MADA during 2013 in Palestine

 

The total violations of media freedoms in Palestine during 2013 monitored by MADA were 229 violations, the Israeli occupation committed 151 violations, the equivalent of 66%, and various Palestinian parties in the West Bank and Gaza committed 78 violations, which is equivalent to 34%. While all Israeli occupation violations were committed in the West Bank only, the Palestinian violations were concentrated in Gaza by 50 violations, and violations reported in the West Bank were 28.

 

 Rimawi added “When comparing the total number of violations in 2013 with the previous year, you will find it relatively better, where violations fell from 238 to 229, and in terms of the nature of the violations, where no case reported of a journalist killed in Palestine, unlike in 2012 the Israeli occupation forces killed three journalists during its aggression on Gaza. Rimawi emphasized that MADA has monitored disturbing trends and patterns of violations this year, such as the heavy targeting of journalists in the West Bank by the Israeli occupation, where they were exposed to the greatest number of violations since 2008, especially in the province of Ramallah and Jerusalem, in addition to the security services in Gaza campaigns against journalists which tightened a rope around the voices of freedom of opinion and expression of journalists and media outlets.

 

These violations embodied in eleven types: physical assault, detention, arrest, prevention from coverage, travel bans, interrogation, threat, raiding, closing and blocking, trial, and confiscation of equipment.

 

 

The Israeli Occupation attacks on journalists in the West Bank Increased in 2013

 

MADA" monitored a total of 151 Israeli violations of media freedoms distributed among the cities of the West Bank only, and no Israeli violations monitored in Gaza. 2013 can be described as very difficult for journalists in the West Bank, where the number of violations on their rights increased from 101violations in 2012 to 151 in 2013. The main reason for this is the high number of popular resistance events in a number of West Bank cities and villages, where the Israeli occupation forces suppressed and attacked journalists during their attempts to cover these events, especially when the Israeli soldiers attack the peaceful demonstrators. MADA monitored about 60% of the occupation violations in Ramallah area (50 violations) and Jerusalem (41 violations).  Israeli occupation forces have also committed violations in other cities in West Bank distributed as following; Hebron (20), Nablus (23), Bethlehem (8), Jenin (2), Tulkarem (1), Salfit (1) and Jericho (5).

 

Regarding types of violations MADA has monitored seven forms of violations committed by the occupation forces against the journalists in 2013; physical assault (87), detention (30), arrest (13), prevention from coverage (15), travel bans (1), interrogation (1), and trial (4).

 

Significant and Gradual improvement of freedom of press in the West Bank and a decline in Gaza

 

In 2013, various Palestinian parties committed a total of 78 violations against journalists and media outlets in Palestine. 63% of the total of violations were concentrated in Gaza (50 violations), and 37% of them in the West Bank (28 violations), and so the violations monitored over the past year were more by four violations of the total monitored by MADA during the year 2012 (74 violations).

 

Media freedoms violations has been influenced negatively over the past year, by the repercussions of the events in Egypt, especially in Gaza, where the journalists were arrested, interrogated, and threatened simply for expressing their opinions about what is happening in Egypt in general, and in particular about the events relating the isolation of the former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, which caused a deterioration in the status of media freedoms in the Gaza. In the West Bank there is still a gradual improvement of media freedoms, but the internal Palestinian division remains one of the main reasons that lead to the continuation of human rights violations in Palestine.

 

Palestinian violations were concentrated in four major cities: Gaza (35 violations), Ramallah (11 violations), Khan Younis (11 violations) and Hebron (6 violations). Because media and journalists are concentrated in the cities of Gaza and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, while in the West Bank, Ramallah city is packed with popular opposition protesting some policies of the Palestinian National Authority, and the city of Hebron is considered one of the most cities with popular support for Hamas. The rest of the cities witnessed a relatively less number of violations: Bethlehem (5), Deir al-Balah (3), Salfit (3), Nablus (2), and one violation in each of Tulkarem and Rafah.

 

Palestinian violations epitomized of 9 forms: arrest (22), detention (11), prevention from coverage (6), threat (5), physical assault (4), closing and blocking (2), raiding (1), interrogation (24) and confiscation of equipment (3).

 

In its annual report, MADA expressed its grave concern at the unprecedented escalation of the Israeli occupation forces violations against journalists in the West Bank, and demanded the official international bodies to force the Israeli occupation authorities to abide by international conventions which guarantee the right to freedom of expression, in particular Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,to hold those responsible for the violations accountable and to pressure the Israeli authorities to allow Palestinian journalists freedom of movement between the provinces and the various Palestinian cities in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and Gaza strip.

 

Regarding the Palestinian violations against Media Freedom, MADA stressed the need and the importance to respect freedom of expression, a right guaranteed in the Palestinian Basic Law, and to hold those responsible for the violations accountable. MADA also calls the Official Palestinian parties to stop all forms of attacks on journalists and enable them to work freely and safely, Allow for newspapers issued in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be distributed in both parts of the country, and to enact the right of access to information law