Palestinian Territories

Salama Atallah, the Gaza Strip correspondent of the French TV news station France 24’s Arabic service, was interrogated by Hamas security officials on June 26 for the fourth time in a month over a report he did for the service about a clandestine Salafist group operating in Gaza. Dubbed “Palestine’s Taliban,” the group is believed to have been responsible for the April 15 murder of Italian peace...

Palestinian news photographer Mohammed Othman was badly injured by a shot fired by an Israeli soldier while covering clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli troops at the Beit Hanoun (Erez) border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel on May 15, the anniversary of Israel’s creation, marked as “Nakba Day” (Day of Disaster) by Palestinians. He was taken to Shifa hospital where he...

Severe harassment by Palestinian Authority and Hamas security forces targeting Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza has had a pronounced chilling effect on freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. In a new report, Human Rights Watch called on Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza to hold their security forces to account for systematic, severe abuses and...

Hamas security forces assaulted and obstructed journalists trying to cover protests in Gaza on Wednesday last, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the assaults and called on the authorities in Gaza to end the harassment of journalists reporting from demonstrations. Police attacked at least five journalists while they were covering several...

Hamas security forces attacked local journalists covering a peaceful demonstration calling for Palestinian national unity on Tuesday. At least one journalist was taken to the hospital after being beaten, according to CPJ research. New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the violence used against the press and calls on the authorities in Gaza to allow...

A television studio in the Palestinian Territories used by the satellite television station Al-Jazeera was attacked Wednesday, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Al-Jazeera recently broadcast confidential documents on the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians between 1999 and 2010. The studio, in Nablus in the north of the West Bank, belongs to...

Palestinians’ violations against journalists in the occupied Palestinian territories were much more than the Israeli’s violations during the month of November. The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has monitored a lot of violations against freedom of expression; most of them were committed by the Palestinian security services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The...

There has been a new wave of harassment and violence against journalists in the occupied Palestinian Territories as the political tension between Hamas and Fatah continues to take its toll on the media. In one of the latest cases, Ahmed Fayadh of the Aljazeeranet news website was beaten by police Thursday in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans...

Amer Abu Arfa, a correspondent for the Shihab news agency, has been convicted and imprisoned in connection with his news coverage. The agency, based in the Gaza Strip, is perceived by the Palestinian Authority as being pro-Hamas. Abu Arfa was arrested on May 11 by Palestinian security forces, according to his father, who told Shihab that his son was taken from their home by the Palestinian...

Israeli soldiers attacked a group of local photojournalists in the West Bank last week as they were covering demonstrations in the area for three international news agencies, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). IFJ has learnt that three photographers were attacked by soldiers on Saturday as they covered a demonstration taking place in Beit Omar, near Hebron. They were...