Israel

Censorship attempts that accompanied Monday's deadly assault by Israel on a flotilla that was carrying humanitarian aid, 750 pro-Palestinian activists and several journalists to the Gaza Strip, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “We deplore this assault, which left a heavy toll of dead and wounded,” Paris-based RSF said. “The journalists who were on the flotilla to cover the...

Tthe Supreme Court in Israel on Thuesday overturned prison sentences of eight months, six of them suspended, against Khader Shahin, correspondent for Iranian Arabic-language television al-Alam, and his assistant Mohammed Sarhan, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. After the Israeli army launched operation Cast Lead on the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008, Shahin, living in Jerusalem, was...

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced two journalists from East Jerusalem to two months' imprisonment for their report to Iranian television about the start of the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in January, Haaretz newspaper has reported. The Haaretz report said: [ Link] The two were sentenced as part of a plea bargain to charges that they violated military censorship restrictions by...

Israeli newspaper reporter Amira Hass was arrested at the Erez border crossing Tuesay as she returned to Israel after spending four months in the Gaza Strip reporting for the Tel Aviv-based daily Haaretz in violation of a military ban on Israeli citizens visiting the Palestinian Territories, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Hass told RSF that the Israeli police arrested...

Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned Monday morning’s decision by the Israeli internal security ministry to shut down the Palestinian media centre that had been set up in the East Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah in advance of the Pope’s visit. The media centre was a temporary one that had been installed in a conference room of the Hotel Ambassador to provide documentation...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Israel to return confiscated news footage of its navy allegedly firing on and boarding a ship on Thursday. Journalists who were on board say they filmed Israeli soldiers assaulting a passenger, and that they were later beaten after their equipment had been confiscated, a reporter who was there told CPJ. According to Al-Jazeera English...

Israel has released two Palestinian journalists employed by the Iranian Arabic-language TV station Al-Alam after being held for 10 days on spying charges. However, they were freed on bail on January 15 and are still accused of “revealing secret information” and “transmitting information to the enemy in war time.” Khader Shahin, a Jerusalem resident and Al-Alam correspondent, was summoned for...

The International News Safety Institute (INSI) has backed a call by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) for the United Nations to investigate the targeting of media by Israeli forces in Gaza. Israeli military actions in Gaza appear to amount to a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1738 which demands all parties in armed conflict comply with their obligations under...

Two east Jerusalem employees of a production company servicing various media outlets worldwide, including one based in Iran, were indicted in Israel Tuesday for breaking Israeli military censorship, the Ynet news site reported. Kadir Shahin, a reporter with Iranian Arabic-speaking Alalam television station, and producer Muhammad Sarhan are accused of reporting that Israeli ground troops had...

A number of prominent Israeli human rights groups have slammed local media outlets for muzzling criticism of the army's deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip. "Opinions criticising the decision to launch the offensive or the army's conduct during the war are hardly heard," the heads of eight rights organisations wrote in a letter to the editors of Israeli papers, television news channels, radios and...