Press freedom, Palestinian-style

Palestinian journalist arrested by the PA in August

Every month, a Palestinian NGO named MADA issues a report of violations of press freedoms in the territories.

For September, it counted 41 violations by Israel and only 8 by the Palestinian Authority.

But the devil is in the details.

All of the Israeli "violations" were where reporters were at the wrong place at the wrong time (i.e., hit by tear gas canisters) or where they tried to go to areas where the Israeli security forces were operating.  They did not name a single case where it was obvious journalist was targeted because he or she was a journalist. (They made that claim for a few cases but didn't back them up.) 

With the Palestinian violations, though, the violations of press freedom are not ambiguous at all:

The most prominent of these violations were:

The Center said: “Despite the decrease in the number of Palestinian violations, they occurred as part of the serious attacks on journalists and on the state of media freedoms. Among the most prominent of these violations was the arrest of 3 journalists by the Palestinian security services after they were summoned for investigation, and they were subjected to ill-treatment amounting to torture (Al-Shabah Journalist Jarrah Khalaf was released after 11 days of detention, and journalist Hatem Hamdan was released after spending four days in detention, while freelance journalist Tariq Al-Sarkji is still detained by Preventive Security in the district building in the city of Nablus after his detention was extended on 09/27 for 15 days.”

In addition to the above, the Preventive Security Service summoned the photographer Muhammad Shusha due to a post he published on his Facebook page, and the Military Intelligence summoned the freelance journalist Mujahid Mardaway and subjected him to investigation for hours due to his media work. 

Being arrested by police and imprisoned for days or longer? Being summoned because they didn't like a Facebook post?

It sounds like there are no Palestinian press freedoms. 

As Bassem Tawil writes:

"The phenomenon of arresting journalists at the hands of the Palestinian security services represents a dangerous policy," the Palestinian Journalists' Forum said in a statement on March 15, 2023. The forum called on the PA to "stop its violations against male and female journalists and to release them immediately."

It is a sad truth that, three decades after the inception of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians still do not have a free and independent media.

It is another sad truth that Palestinian journalists are being arrested and intimidated by PA security forces for the crime of carrying out their duties. Palestinians who want to practice real journalism are forced to seek work with Israeli and foreign media, where they enjoy far more freedom than in their own media outlets.

An even sadder truth is that most international human rights organizations care nothing about the abuse perpetrated against Palestinian journalists by their own leaders.

 

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