Range: 277 violations of media freedoms in the first half of 2018

Range: 277 violations of media freedoms in the first half of 2018

• 2018-08-06 01:35:46
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Gaza _ Palestine News Network

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (PCHR) issued its semi-annual report, which monitors and documents violations against media freedoms in Palestine during the first half of this year 2018.

The report showed that the first half of 2018 saw a marked rise in the number of violations against media freedoms compared with the same period of last year 2017, which was 21%, as a direct result of a significant rise in the number of Israeli assaults and an increase in their gravity, which culminated That two journalists were killed by the Israeli occupation forces while they were covering peaceful marches in the Gaza Strip, which was accompanied by a reduction in the number of Palestinian violations, which fell by 32 percent.

"The total number of Israeli and Palestinian attacks against media freedoms in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (including the occupied city of Jerusalem) totalled 277, of which 208 (75 percent) were committed by the Israeli occupation, while Palestinian actors In the West Bank and Gaza Strip a total of 69 violations, equivalent to 25%.

"The figures and the data point to a marked and continuous widening of the cycle of attacks against media freedoms in Palestine, especially since the first half of last year, 2017, has also seen a rise of 15%," he added. "In the first half of 2018, the number of Israeli violations rose by 64% from the record of Israel's 127 attacks during the same period of 2017, which amounted to only 126 Israelis," he added.

"There is no doubt that the murders of Israeli occupation soldiers, Yasser Abdul Rahman Murtaja and Ahmed Hassan Abu Hussein while they are covering the peaceful return marches east of Gaza, were the most dangerous and serious during the first half of 2018," said the center, which is concerned with defending media freedoms. The most obvious is the way in which the Israeli occupation forces and authorities deal with journalists and the media and the limits of the dangers to which journalists are exposed, especially since the various data and testimonies show that these crimes were deliberately and directly committed by the aim of the killing, as the two journalists had spent And Abu Hussein in two separate incidents from being targeted by bullets Explosive fiery occupation  ".

"The attacks (both Israeli and Palestinian) have affected a total of 200 journalists, including 168 journalists and 32 reporters," he said, noting that a number of other attacks targeted other groups of journalists and journalists, as well as attacks on media institutions that were not directly related to individuals or Specific people  ".

According to the status report, "The Israeli violations have in recent years accounted for about two-thirds of all recorded violations, but during the first half of this year they jumped to three quarters of all violations (75%), i.e., three out of every four attacks against media freedoms occurred in Palestine during the first half of 2018 committed by the Israeli occupation. "

He said that a total of 128 Israeli attacks were recorded in the first six months of this year in the West Bank and 80 in the Gaza Strip, "although the attacks on the Gaza Strip were the most serious and dangerous since most of the victims were seriously injured Two of them were martyred and caused serious injuries to scores of others.

The murders of journalists Yasser Abdul Rahman Murtaja, 31, a photographer at the "Ain Media" agency, and Ahmed Hassan Abu Hussein, 26, a journalist with the "Voice of the People" Radio and the free photographer, were undoubtedly the most dangerous and serious, as The various statements and testimonies were carried out in a deliberate and direct operation aimed at killing, in which two journalists, Murtaja and Abu Hussein, were killed in separate incidents as a result of being targeted by explosive fire-occupation. "

"Most of the Israeli attacks, which came within 11 types, were concentrated in physical attacks, which accounted for 57 percent of all Israeli attacks, which were monitored and documented by a range center during the first half of 2018," he said.

On Palestinian violations, the report said that although it has declined, it has not moved away from the overall rate recorded over the past seven years, noting that "most of them took place in the West Bank (54), compared to 15 violations recorded in the Gaza Strip," but these figures never mean that the reality of freedom The press in the Gaza Strip is better than the Bank in general) and in a rare case, physical assaults against journalists have surpassed the various types Other Palestinian violations recorded in the first half of this year 2018  ".

In its report, PCHR condemned all attacks aimed at freedom of information and expression in Palestine, which resulted in the death of two journalists, and renewed its demand that the international community take serious action to hold accountable the perpetrators of these crimes and attacks, in particular the murders of journalists Ahmed Abu Hussein Yasser Murtaja, bringing them to justice, pressuring the Israeli occupation government to stop its continuing violations of instruments and international laws guaranteeing freedom of expression, and demanding that all relevant Palestinian authorities in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip respect the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Basic Law And the International Covenants signed by the State of Palestine, and that the perpetrators of such attacks should be held accountable.