Ramallah – Ma’an – The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) announced the results of its annual report on media freedoms in Palestine during the past year 2023.
This came during a press conference held today, Monday, at the Mada Center headquarters, where the Chairman of the Center’s Board of Directors delivered the conference speech, with the participation of A. Jihad Harb, Member of the Board of Directors, and Mr. Sherine Al-Khatib, Acting Director of the Center, and a number of journalists and media institutions.
First, Dr. Hanania welcomed the audience and asked them to recite Al-Fatiha for the souls of the civilian martyrs, including the martyrs of the media movement who rose since the beginning of October 7 in the Gaza Strip.
He reviewed the number of violations during the year 2023 committed by all parties that occurred this year under circumstances that can be described as bloody on media freedoms, and indicated that the Mada Center, despite all the challenges and obstacles,
is still keen to continue performing its role and completing its mission that it was established from. He postponed it, and stressed again the importance of approving the right to access information law, hoping that the new government would work to approve it as soon as possible. He also sent a message to all Palestinian factions and organizations to give priority to the public interest and to work seriously to end the division to achieve unity and victory.
For her part, Al-Khatib reviewed the results of the annual report on media freedoms in Palestine for the year 2023, referring to the efforts of the Mada Center since its establishment to shed light on the violations practiced against media freedoms in Palestine from all sides, which crossed all borders during the past year with the martyrdom of 103 journalists in Palestine. Gaza Strip in the crimes of the Israeli occupation against media freedoms.
It showed that violations of media freedoms increased during the year 2023 by 40% compared to the year befor
e 2023, as Mada documented a total of 848 violations against media freedoms in Palestine (the occupation forces and authorities committed a total of 715 violations (84.3%), while the means of communication committed There were a total of 62 violations (7.3%), while the various Palestinian parties in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip committed 71 violations (8.3%) of the total documented violations, indicating that the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip was one of the main reasons for the increase in the number of violations as a result of atrocities. committed by the occupation forces in the last quarter of the year, especially those committed in the Gaza Strip, which increased by 72% compared to the year 2022.
She pointed out that the Israeli violations came within 21 types, and as in previous years, most of them occurred within the types that are dangerous to media freedoms and to the lives of journalists, which are (murder, physical injuries, preventing coverage and targeting to prevent coverage, arrest, closin
g and destroying media institutions, in addition to bombing and destroying Journalists’ homes), which constituted 74% of all Israeli violations.
The report indicated that the 103 murders of journalists constituted 14.4% of the total Israeli violations, followed by physical attacks, which amounted to 141 attacks, in about 64% of which the occupation forces resorted to using live ammunition and lethal means against journalists during field coverage.
The report also showed a decrease in the number of documented social media violations during the year 2023, as a total of 62 violations were monitored out of the total number of violations, representing 7%, of which the ‘Meta’ company occupied 89%.
However, this decrease does not indicate an improvement in the policy of social media sites regarding Palestinian content. Rather, it is due to the inability to monitor it in the last quarter of the year after the start of the war, due to its high incidence among journalists in the Gaza Strip.
The report also revealed
a slight increase in the number of documented Palestinian violations of 13 types during the past year, 2023, as it documented a total of 71 violations committed by Palestinian parties in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, representing 8% of the total documented violations, compared to 55 violations documented in the previous year, 2022.
The report indicated that physical attacks topped Palestinian violations in number, amounting to 10 attacks, followed by arrests of journalists, with 9 violations. The report also showed that Palestinian violations in the West Bank witnessed an increase during the year 2023 by 26% over the previous year in 2022, and violations in the Gaza Strip increased slightly by 5 points over the previous year.
Source: Maan News Agency