[News] Palestine - Addameer Condemns Crackdown by Occupation Forces on Media and News Agencies

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*http://www.addameer.org/news/addameer-condemns-crackdown-occupation-forces-media-and-news-agencies* 



  Addameer Condemns Crackdown by Occupation Forces on Media and News
  Agencies

<http://www.addameer.org/printpdf/2259>

15 March 2016

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association condemns the 
arrest and detention of more than seven Palestinian journalists since 
the beginning of this year as well as the recent storming and closure of 
Palestine Today office in Ramallah. The occupation, therefore, continues 
to target and arrest human rights defenders, particularly journalists, 
in order to repress and silence Palestinians from presenting the brutal 
reality of the Israeli occupation.

On Friday, 11/03/2016, the Israeli occupation forces raided and closed 
down the office of Palestine Today channel  and the company 
“Trans-Media", which provides technical services for the channel. The 
occupation forces  confiscated their equipment, destroyed their 
contents, and arrested the director of the channel, Farouk Elayan, 
journalist and photographer Mohammed Amr, and technicians broadcaster 
Shabib Shabib. Mohammed Amr and Shabib Shabib were later released after 
interrogation. Additionally, correspondent Ibrahim Jaradat was arrested 
on 03/13/2016 at a flying military checkpoint near Bir Nabala.

The occupying power has also forced the French satellite "YOTEL Sat" to 
stop satellite broadcast for Al-Aqsa channel because of their purported 
role in propagating incitement. A number of Palestinian journalists have 
received threats from anonymous people, who claimed to be "Israeli 
security forces" and they were told that they are under surveillance.

According to Addameer’s statistics, the Israeli forces arrested seven 
Palestinian journalists since the beginning of this year. Five of them 
remain in custody: Samer Abu Aisha, Mujahid al-Saadi, Sami Al-Saai, 
Farouk Elayan and Ibrahim Jaradat.  Currently, 22 Palestinian 
journalists remain in Israeli prisons in total. The longest serving 
journalist with a life sentence, Mahmoud Issa, was working as a reporter 
for Sawt Al-Haq Wal Hurriya before his arrest in 1993.

Israel has adopted a policy of arrest, detention, intimidation, threats 
and, at times, collective punishment against human rights defenders in 
order to repress and discredit them and their efforts for reflecting the 
crimes committed by the occupation against Palestinians. The UN 
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders defines human rights defenders as 
individuals who play an important role in furthering the cause of human 
rights through activities such as the documentation of violations, 
providing support and assistance to victims seeking remedies, combating 
cultures of impunity and mainstreaming human rights culture and 
information on an international and domestic level. Human Rights 
Defenders in the occupied Palestinian territory face various types of 
harassment and rights violations by the occupation forces, irrespective 
of the protection afforded to them in international conventions, and 
particularly the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of 
Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect 
Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Addameer holds that these punitive measures  taken by the occupation 
forces against Palestinian journalists and human rights defenders  are 
in contravention with international humanitarian law, which aim to deter 
Palestinian human rights defenders, intimidate them, and push them to 
give up their rights to free speech and expression. The arrest of 
journalists is a crime that gravely contravenes the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights and the Universal Declaration on the 
Protection of Human Rights Defenders. As such, Addameer demands 
condemnation by the international community against the campaign of mass 
arrest against Palestinian journalists, and for the protection of human 
rights defenders.

Addameer calls on the United Nations to put an end to the crimes of the 
occupation, which include the closure of Palestinian media and human 
rights organizations and arrests of their staff members, and to provide 
protection of Palestinian civilians in accordance with International 
Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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