Gaza _ Palestine News Network
The Press Support Committee documented 926 cases of violation of Palestinian press freedom by the Israeli occupation, compared to 199 cases by Palestinian authorities.
In its annual report for 2018, on Tuesday, the Committee stated that such cases were crimes of violation of the right to life and personal integrity of journalists, and that journalists were beaten and other means of violence, humiliation and degrading treatment.
She stressed that there had been a marked escalation of the occupation´s attacks on media freedoms in the Palestinian territories, which had intensified in May May 2018, due to the intensification of journalists ´ work in covering the return marches on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.
The Committee has documented the increase in attacks on journalists, both by wilful killing and direct targeting of live and explosive shootings, or by the demolition of their media outlets, except for arrest, detention, intrusion, denial of coverage or travel ban, and other violations of the rights to freedom The journalist to express his opinion and perform his work freely.
The report noted that violations against journalists and media workers had been deliberately committed and that excessive force had been used without regard to the principles of distinction and proportionality, in disregard of all international, human rights and humanitarian instruments guaranteeing freedom of journalistic work.
During the year, intentional killing, shelling of media and cultural institutions as a maximum space target was recorded and completely destroyed, targeting the al-Masal Cultural Arts Foundation, the Public Library and the Arts and Crafts village, other than targeting printing presses and media organizations in the West Bank and closing media institutions such as the closure of the Al-Quds satellite channel from work inside the occupied territories in 1948 and the City of Jerusalem and the prohibition of dealing with it by companies that provide information services and closure of the Al-Ilya Youth Media Press, the site of the Palestine News Channel today, the message site of the media, and the Palestinian opinion Agency, and its maximum space several times.
The occupation also continued the direct targeting of journalists using various types of combat warfare, causing serious harm by targeting the lower limbs of journalists to prevent them from performing their work, other than by arresting and detaining journalists and removing others, and by preventing journalists from entering certain areas or Covering events, confiscating press equipment and materials, and preventing journalists from travelling abroad, as well as raiding and destroying the contents of journalists ´ homes.
The Committee monitored the violations of the occupation by (369) cases of assault and shooting of journalists, including journalists, whether they were directly targeted by live or rubber-coated bullets, beatings, run-outs, kicks, injuries, fractures and bruises throughout their body, humiliation and degrading treatment Suffocation from inhalation of poison gas and pepper gas, their equipment being destroyed and destroyed.
Some 281 journalists were injured while covering the return marches on the eastern border of the strip, which began in March 2018.
Arrests during 2018 recorded 105 cases of arrest, summons and detention of journalists for hours and days using harsh methods of torture during interrogation, except for the imposition of a deportation or domestic detention policy.
While in 2018, the report documented 71 violations, the diversity between the extension of detention more than once before the date of their release-such as the writer and the media of Mai Khater, whose detention was extended more than seven times, the confirmation of sentences for journalists, the sentencing of others, and the postponement of the trial of some of them still in the prisons of occupation Machinery.
The report also monitored 95 cases in which journalists were prevented from doing their work and coverage and harassment of juveniles. Nine cases of incitement, accusation and prosecution of journalists and media organizations were registered and forced to close their institutions.
The report noted 104 cases of closures and threats to close and disrupt media institutions and combat Palestinian content such as closing, deleting and banning many websites and social media sites.
The report also recorded 68 incursions, raids, searches and smashing, the confiscation of broadcast devices, equipment and vehicles, press materials for the homes of journalists and their media organizations, as well as preventing journalists from travelling either to receive treatment, to attend an international conference, or to give prizes to them, which were recorded in the report, which is 10 cases prevented from Travel.
The report focused on the violations of journalists in occupation prisons and harassment, which amounted to 51, including forcing 33 journalists to pay a fine, apart from assault, torture and cruel treatment, preventing them from visiting their lawyers and family, and filing an indictment to continue their detention, and refusing Release, install, and medical negligence in their treatment, depriving them of their lawful rights.
With regard to Palestinian internal violations, the annual report recorded 199 violations, which were distributed in 146 cases in the West Bank and 53 in the Gaza Strip, including the arrest, summons and detention of 77 journalists, the extension of the detention and the postponement of a trial (21 cases, assault and injury of 26). There were 16 cases of incitement, threats and dismissal, as were the number of incursions and raids (9), (12) Confiscation of equipment and (35) cases of denial of coverage and obstruction of work, and (3) violations against journalists within their political detention.
The Press Support Committee said that the occupying forces continued to practice violations against journalists, contrary to article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding freedom of the press, explaining that the occupying government, which had signed the conventions, had not complied with them, and was daily violating freedoms and chasing Journalists, contrary to the signed treaties and conventions that have remained a dead letter in the light of the continued targeting of the Palestinian people in all its spectrum.
She called on journalists to document violations against them by video, photographs and testimonies, and to submit them to international and human rights commissions and institutions, appreciating the performance of journalists and their courage and determination to do their duty to expose and strip the crimes of occupation against the Palestinian people who are against the occupation and against the decisions of the administration On Jerusalem.
It praised the work of the Palestinian media and the majority of the Arab and international media, which devote considerable space to cover what is happening in occupied Palestine.
She called on journalists to continue their media message to the world, to shed their cameras, and to guide their pens, to expose the practices of occupation that seek to blur the truth for further killings and looting of Palestinians and the Palestinian territories.
She called on international and human rights institutions to stand up for their responsibilities and to protect journalists targeted by the occupying forces with their bullets and barbaric practices aimed at obliterating the facts and lawlessness killing, arresting and torturing unarmed Palestinians.
