Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA)

Photojournalist Jihad Alqadi was busy covering clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces on 1 March 2013, when he got shot in the stomach by an Israeli soldier and sent to the hospital to undergo emergency surgery.

Death threats, physical attacks, an emergence of hate speech and accusations of official censorship of critical media have escalated the perilous situation for freedom of expression in Tunisia, say over 20 IFEX members.

Israeli forces prevented Palestinian journalists from covering a raid operation on the town of Aldoha, near Bethlehem on 19 February 2013. On 16 February, they arrested Palestinian cartoonist Mohammed Saba’na.

The Israeli Defense Forces assaulted, detained, and arrested journalists covering peaceful demonstrations in the village of K’naan in Hebron on 9 February 2013.

On 12 January 2013, the Israeli forces denied the Palestinian News Network (PNN) crew, including Editor-in-chief Monjid Jado and cameraman Joseph Saqer, access to the village of Bab Alshams, near the city of Jerusalem. They also prevented other press crews from reaching the site such as Al Etejah TV, a Saudi Arabian channel and an Iraqi one.

Four journalists in the Gaza Strip were arrested by the internal security forces of Hamas on 21-22 January 2013; others were summoned for investigation.

Palestinian journalists were harassed and prevented from covering Israel’s evacuation of a tent city built by Palestinian activists protesting the government’s plan to establish a settlement outpost in the area.

Fatal attacks on three journalists followed a series of Israeli air strikes earlier in the week that injured at least 11 journalists and damaged news outlets in Gaza.