Palestinian Territories

Ossayd Amarneh, a cameraman employed by Al-Aqsa TV, the mouthpiece of the Islamic party Hamas, was arrested in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on September 21, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). It is the fourth time Amarneh has been arrested in the past 12 months. The Palestinian Authority security services constant harass Al-Aqsa journalists in order to rein in Hamas’s propaganda and...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its appeal to Palestinian political leaders to put an end to a wave of arrests of journalists. At least four are currently detained in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the press freedom organisation calls for their release. "The political struggle between Hamas and Fatah has inflicted a great deal of damage on the press in the Palestinian Territories...

Hamas has allowed a Palestinian newspaper to be distributed in Gaza Strip and kept the ban on two others, according to a Xinhua report. Hassan Abu Hashish, director of the Hamas' governmental press office, said the ban on the Jerusalem-based al-Quds daily was lifted "after the newspaper's directors pledged to remain professional and objective in their coverage of the events in Gaza Strip." Abu...

Voice of the People, a radio station operated by the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was closed down by Hamas in Gaza City on August 2. "The Islamist party Hamas must stop arbitrarily targeting news media just because they do not blindly relay its propaganda," Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. "Press freedom is under serious threat in the Gaza Strip...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned recent attacks on Palestinian journalists by both governments of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority which are locked in a political power struggle. The recent reports of torturing journalists in the Gaza Strip and West Bank is the culmination of an intimidation campaign against journalists and media which started during the violent...

The Hamas-led government in Gaza should immediately halt a wave of censorship and harassment of Palestinian media outlets and journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. CPJ also called on the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority to end its longstanding obstruction of certain media outlets in the West Bank On Tuesday, for the second consecutive day, Hamas banned distribution in...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressede concern over the July 26 arrest of a Palestinian cameraman in Gaza by Hamas security services. Hamas security agents arrested Sawah Abu Seif, a cameraman with German broadcaster ARD TV in his home in Tel al-Hawa in southwest Gaza following an explosion that Hamas blamed on Fatah, which killed six people in Gaza, according to local...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the July 26 arrest of a Palestinian cameraman in Gaza by Hamas security services. Hamas security agents arrested Sawah Abu Seif, a cameraman with German broadcaster ARD TV, in his home in Tel al-Hawa in southwest Gaza following an explosion that Hamas blamed on Fatah, which killed six people in Gaza, according to local...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the abusive behaviour by Israeli security agents towards Palestinian journalists moving around the Territories or returning from visits abroad. Paris-based RSF says it has recorded five incidents of wrongful arrest over a recent 10-day period. One journalist is still being held, while another needed hospital treatment after being subjected to brutality...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the news media that have been closed in the Palestinian territories since the start of the clashes to be allowed to resume operating. "No fewer that 17 news media have been forced to stop working since June 2007, when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority withdrew to the West Bank," the press freedom organisation said....