The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) said that the month of September 2019 witnessed a significant increase in the number of violations against media freedoms in Palestine, where it recorded a total of 53 attacks compared to 36 attacks during the month of August He pointed out that about two-thirds of the violations documented in September, committed by Facebook through dozens of blocking and closure of Palestinian pages.
Mada said in its monthly report that Facebook had closed a total of 34 news pages and a special account for journalists from the West Bank and Gaza Strip followed by hundreds of thousands of people, claiming that it "violates the rules of the Facebook community" note that part of these pages were completely closed while identified Blocking of another section for one month only.
In addition to Facebook´s closures alone, Twitter also shut down one Palestinian journalist´s account this month.
Israeli violations:
PCHR noted in its report that the number of Israeli violations decreased from 19 violations documented in August to 14 Israeli attacks in September, adding that "there has been no fundamental change in the quality of the Israeli attacks, most of which came as usual among the most serious attacks on journalists´ lives." And media freedoms. "
According to the report, "Israeli violations were distributed on six physical injuries by the Israeli occupation forces, a case of arrest, house arrest, and the banning of writing on social media sites, and two cases of detention and denial of coverage. The following journalists were hit: Birzeit University media professor Dr. Widad Barghouti (arrested) 16 days were followed by house arrest and prevented from appearing on social media and media which is still ongoing (Abdul Rahman Hani Al-Kahlout (two bullets and a third rubber bullet in his legs), Zakaria Rebhi Bakir (rubber bullet with his left hand) and Ahmed Mohammed Al-Hindi (Rubber bullet in His Excellency Abdel-Rahman Mohammed Younis (rubber bullet in the left shoulder), Muhammad Ahmad Turkman (rubber bullet in his right leg), Jihad Yousef al-Qaq (detention and denial of coverage), and Sari Jaradat (detention and denial of coverage), At least four journalists were prevented from covering clashes in Ramallah. "
Palestinian violations:
As for the Palestinian violations, they were confined to four cases, three of which occurred in the Gaza Strip and only one in the West Bank: the arrest of the Preventive Security in Nablus in the West Bank freelance journalist Mujahed Abdullah Qat for 10 days, and the arrest of the Internal Security Agency in Gaza correspondent Radio Voice of Youth Hani Nabil al-Agha, also called for investigating Hamza Jamal Ibrahim Hammad, the journalist in the Gaza Strip, for allegedly publishing articles on a page about corruption cases involving government officials in the Gaza Strip, and the confiscation of the camera´s memory by the Hamas TV crew.
Facebook violations:
Mada said that Facebook continued to close and ban more news and media pages for allegedly violating Facebook community privacy standards, as it closed and blocked at least 34 accounts on its website. It is clear that these closures come within the framework of agreements or understandings entered into by the company with the occupation government. As a people still languishing Under the yoke of occupation for decades.
Mada said that it addressed the public policy department at Facebook and sent a letter on 30/5/2019 asking it to explain why it blocked and closed a total of 58 news and personal pages of Palestinian journalists without warning or prior clarification. Reason for closure, blocking and any infringement on the freedom of publication and expression. Facebook responded to Mada´s letter and asked the center for a list of the names of the accounts and the pages that were closed to investigate the reason for the closure.
"Following the delay of the response by Facebook, Mada Center sent several letters of inquiry, reminders and follow-up on the results of the investigation until 30/9/2019, where Mada received a response, from the Department of Public Policies in Facebook, informing us that 9 has been reactivated Of the 58 accounts that have been closed, Facebook justified its continued closure and withholding the rest of the accounts for reasons it said were related to ´Facebook standards´.
