Information is the currency of democracy.
– Thomas Jefferson
Middle East & North Africa
Israeli-Occupied Territories and Palestinian Authority
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| IREX Score: 1.93 | [IREX Methodology] |
| {Higher is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to 4.00} |
IREX Description:
MSI panelists agreed that the expansion in the Palestinian media landscape attained an unprecedented level by early 2008, when, as a result of the internal conflicts between Fatah and Hamas, the two movements sought to establish media outlets of a partisan nature, in particular websites. Most of their media activities were used to incite and defame, with no legal accountability whatsoever and in a manner that exacerbated the situation and increased the pressure on the private independent media to favor one party or the other. The intensification of the internal conflicts, the escalation of political polarization between Fatah and Hamas, and the division of power by the two political entities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip resulted in a worsening situation for citizens’ rights and increasing violations of freedom of expression and media freedom.
MSI panelists concluded in the light of the above that the further aggravation of internal conflicts in 2008 claimed public freedoms, including freedom of opinion, expression, and the press, as its first victims. At the conclusion of the MSI panel meeting, which was held as a video conference between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the panelists highlighted the remarkable deterioration in the sustainability of media. The overall score suffered further erosion, falling to 1.76 compared to 1.84 for 2006/2007 and 2.09 for 2005.
| Freedom House Score: 83 (Not Free) | [Freedom House Methodology] |
| {Lower is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to 100} |
| RSF Score: 56.13 | [RSF Methodology] |
| {Lower is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to ~120} |
Reporters Without Borders Description:
Since Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, journalists have suffered as a result of the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas in the Palestinian Territories.
Palestinian reporters are also extremely vulnerable to abuse from the Israeli army.
Since June 2007, the media has been split in two between those close to the Palestinian Authority and those linked to Hamas. In 2009 as in 2008, Hamas and Fatah carried out constant reprisals in the Palestinian Territories with the number of arrests reaching a record level of 61 cases in 2009. Journalists with links to Hamas are summoned, questioned and arrested on the West Bank by the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, while pro-Fatah journalists are regularly threatened by Hamas police. The very tense political situation made work very difficult for journalists not wishing to adopt a partisan line.
| Committee to Protect Journalists Description: | [What is the Committee to Protect Journalists?] |
As the year began, the Israeli military waged a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip in response to a series of Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli territory. A massive Israeli air bombardment preceded the ground action. During the monthlong conflict, airstrikes by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) destroyed the headquarters of a Hamas-controlled television station, Al-Aqsa TV, struck at least three other buildings housing news media, and injured several local journalists attempting to cover the assault. At the same time, Israeli authorities largely barred foreign journalists’ access to Gaza with restrictions imposed in early November 2008 and tightened after the start of the Israeli offensive.
By the time Israeli forces withdrew on January 21, 13 Israelis and more than 1,000 Palestinians had been killed, according to figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza and the IDF. Israel’s blanket news media restrictions severely limited coverage of the Gaza offensive and contravened a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court as well as international legal principles. The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem declared in a statement that “the unprecedented denial of access to Gaza for the world’s media amounts to a severe violation of press freedom and puts the state of Israel in the company of a handful of regimes around the world which regularly keep journalists from doing their jobs.” Only 15 journalists, handpicked by the Israeli military and embedded with Israeli troops, were officially permitted to enter the Gaza Strip during the war. (In the waning days of the conflict, a handful of international journalists managed to reach Gaza through the Egyptian-administered Rafah Crossing, either by sneaking across or persuading Egyptian guards to let them through.) A small number of international journalists who had been in Gaza before the start of the offensive remained there throughout the fighting.
| IFEX News: | [What is IFEX?] |
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