Ramallah / PNN /
April witnessed a noticeable decrease in the number of violations against media freedom in Palestine in comparison with March; and despite this decrease, the largest portion of it is categorized under the serious violations against media freedom and the safety of journalists.
March witnessed an increase in the number of violations (total of 53 violations), as a result of the increase of Israeli violations against journalists during their coverage of the different incidents, especially in Nablus.
Therefore, a total of 15 violations have been documented during the month of April, 12 of which were committed by the Israeli Occupation, whereas different Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza have committed a total of 3 violations, and none committed by social media.
Israeli Violations:
The Israeli Occupation authorities committed during April 12 violations with a percentage of 80% of the total violations committed during this month. Most of the violations are categorized as serious assaults against media freedoms and journalists and their ability to carry out their tasks.
The violations have been distributed to 5 physical injuries as follows: MOHAMMED FAWZI, the cameraman of “Roya” Tv channel has been shot with a rubber bullet in his left thigh, MOHAMMED ANAYEH, the cameraman of Palestine Tv has been shot with a rubber bullet in his left forearm and his camera was destroyed after falling to the ground, in addition to ABDULRAHMAN HASSAN, the freelance journalist who has been shot with a rubber bullet in his left calf. Also, the Occupation police assaulted the Jerusalemite journalist ATA OWEISAT with a baton in the al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as assaulting WAHBI MAKKYEH, the cameraman of Almayadeen Tv, and detained him for an hour to prevent him from covering the storming of al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards by the settlers.
The Occupation forces arrested the freelance journalist MOHAMMED BADER from his house in “Beit Liqya”, and he is still in Ofer Detention Center as his trial was postponed more than once. The Occupation forces also prevented journalist and cameraman IBRAHIM ASSINJILAWI from covering the events in Jerusalem and deleted all material from his phone, and the freelance journalist ABDULRAHMAN HASSAN from covering the arrival of the masses to al-Aqsa Mosque through “300” checkpoint in Bethlehem, and they deleted all taken material from his phone.
Palestinian Violations:
The number of Palestinian violations against media freedom in Palestine has decreased during the month of April and in comparison, with March, three violations with a percentage of 20% of the total of all violations have been documented during the month.
The violations were limited to two incidents in the Gaza Strip. One of which was against the cameraman of “The New Arab” who was detained by the UNRWA security and prevented him from documenting the workers union, as they smashed his camera’s lens. The other violation took place in the West Bank as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority “MOHAMMED ISHTAYYEH” banned AQEEL AWAWDEH, the reporter of “24 FM” off of his Facebook page and prevented him from accessing public information on the page.
