Gaza _ Palestine News Network
According to an official Palestinian report, the Israeli occupation forces committed 679 violations of media freedoms during 2018, compared with 621 in 2017.
The Palestinian information Ministry said in its annual report issued Tuesday that the frequency of Israeli violations against journalists and media freedoms in Palestine during 2018 had escalated by 10 percent.
The month of May had the highest rate of Israeli violations against Palestinian media workers and media institutions and freedoms, with 106 violations, followed by April 81 violations and December 77 violations.
The report noted that the arrest by the occupation and the accompanying Israeli actions were the most prominent violations, which, according to the data, represented 128 violations, followed by 107 cases of gas asphyxiation and 82 injuries and shrapnel wounds.
The Palestinian media documented 76 cases of live bullets and 35 rubber-coated metal bullets, 64 cases of journalists being removed from social media sites, as well as fines and arbitrary punishments targeting 41 journalists.
The official report noted that the Gaza Strip could issue a scene of Israeli violations with 253 violations, followed by the occupied city of Jerusalem with 72 violations by the rest of the governorates.
According to the report, the occupying forces targeted a total of 627 journalists, 564 males and 67 females, as well as targeting 38 press groups and 10 media organizations.
Two journalists, Yasser Murtagja and Ahmed Abu Hussain, were martyred during 2018, both from the Gaza Strip and martyred during their coverage of the major return march on the eastern border of the sector.
Last year, the Parliament of the Occupation (Knesset) approved the "law banning the filming of Occupation Soldiers", which approved the first reading, and includes preventing journalists from photographing occupation soldiers and imposing criminal sanctions.
