According to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA), October in Palestine witnessed the lowest record of press freedom violations since the beginning of the year.
This statement was originally published on madacenter.org on 13 November 2016.
October 2016 witnessed a decline in the total number of violations against media freedoms in Palestine compared to previous months. A total of 22 violations were monitored by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) including 11 violations at the hands of the Israeli Occupation forces (IOF) and 11 violations by Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The total number of violations monitored in October (22 violations) was considered the lowest recorded since the beginning of the year in Palestine.
Israeli violations:
Most recorded violations committed by Israeli forces this month are considered grave violations, the most prominent of which was the storming of the Infinity printing house in Hebron at dawn on 16 October. Israeli forces searched and confiscated many of the printing house’s equipment, disrupting its work.
Another notable violation took place on 9 October, a few days earlier, whereby an Israeli soldier shot and wounded AP cameraman Majdi Mohammed Shtayyeh in the back with a rubber bullet while he was covering the arrest of a citizen in the town of Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem.
On 4 October, dozens of Palestinian journalists participating in a tour organised by the Palestinian Ministry of Information in the Jordan Valley were detained and prevented from conducting interviews with the farmers present. Israeli forces claimed that the journalists were present in a restricted zone.
Palestinian Violations:
Violations at the hands of Palestinians in the West Bank (7) and the Gaza Strip (4) numbered less than half of what was recoded in September. Violations ranged between summonses to investigation, interrogations, arrests, and confiscation of equipment.
The most prominent of violations the was arrest of Ramsat agency photographer Nidal Asmar Al Natsheh by the preventive security service. He was detained for seven days after security forces raided and searched his house in Hebron on 13 October. Several of his devices were confiscated.
In the Jenin governorate, Palestinian intelligence personnel arrested Al Quds Educational Channel’s cameraman Mahmoud Mattar for five days.
Internal Security Service in Gaza continued to harass a program presenter at AL Nahar Channel, Nuha Abu Amro, as she was summoned and interrogated twice while her mobile phone was confiscated and her personal account on Facebook accessed without her consent.
For a detailed breakdown of violations, continue reading the report on MADA’s site here.
