A report issued on Thursday (17.02.2011) by the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedom, Mada, has stated that over the course of 2010, there has been a perceptible escalation in the number of violations being carried out against the media across the occupied Palestinian Territories.
According to the report, 218 incidents of aggression and violation of media freedom were recorded last year marking a significant increase on the year before. In 2009, 173 incidents of attacks against journalist and media personnel were recorded.
Mada highlighted that the majority of these incidents were perpetrated by Jewish Settlers and soldiers of the Israeli occupation who bear responsibility for 139 of the 218 incidents while the Palestinian Security Forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip committed 79 violations during the same period.
According to the report, the majority of violations committed against the press were focussed in the city of Hebron where 53 attacks on journalists and correspondents for local and foreign media organisations occurred in 2010 alone. Occupied Jerusalem had the second highest number of recorded incidents with 31 similar attacks. Mada expressed concerns over a future increase in these figures.
According to the facts of the report, last year witnessed the emergence of a dozen new types of violations perpetrated against journalists including physical abuse, abduction, confiscation of equipment, preventing them from covering events, the closure of media institutions as well as attacks and threats against their workers who were also prevented from travelling.
Source: Al-Quds Press Service