Palestinian media freedom hit by 148 violations in September

The Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) recorded 148 violations against the Palestinian media in September, including seven Palestinian violations and one violation by social media sites, Safa has reported. This was an increase of 41 per cent over the number of violations in August.

MADA explained that the increase last month was due mainly to the fierce attack launched by the occupation forces against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

There were 140 Israeli violations against media freedom in Palestine, 132 in the West Bank and eight in the Gaza Strip. Various Palestinian parties committed five violations, four of which were in the West Bank, while Facebook, owned by Meta, restricted the content of one journalist’s account in the Gaza Strip. Israeli violations included the murder of three journalists.

Indeed, the occupation forces targeted media crews and journalists in the West Bank 39 times, and in 43 other cases, journalists were subjected to their coverage of events being prevented. Bulldozers used by the occupation forces attempted to crush 22 journalists to prevent them from covering incidents in the West Bank. Four journalists were arrested.

MADA documented 11 physical attacks against journalists. In three cases, journalists were injured by shrapnel from Israeli missile attacks in the Gaza Strip.

The occupation forces raided the office of Al Jazeera news network in the second half of September, confiscated its equipment and ordered its closure for 45 days. They also raided and ransacked the homes of two journalists in Hebron, as well as the headquarters of the Palestinian Media Company, where equipment was stolen or destroyed.

On 1 September, the occupation regime placed Tulkarm photojournalist Hazem Nasser in administrative detention for 5 months with neither charge nor trial. He has been detained since 25 July.

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