The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (Mada) said Wednesday that it monitored and documented 584 attacks against media freedoms in Palestine last year, and announced the results of its index for measuring freedom of the press in Palestine for 2018, Which showed a "bad" assessment of the state of press freedom in Palestine.
The director of the Mada Center, Musa al-Rimawi, that on the sidelines of a conference held by the Center in Ramallah to review the annual report and announce the results of the Journalistic Freedom Index in Palestine, it recorded an increase in the number of Israeli violations against press freedoms During the past year and accounted for 78% of the total attacks recorded, while Palestinian violations have decreased compared to last year.
The highest level of attacks against journalists was the killing of two Palestinian journalists: Yaser Abdel Rahman Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein. Dozens of live and explosive bullets and gas bombs were fired at their bodies during their work, causing serious injuries to some of them.
According to the Mada report, the number of Israeli attacks reached 455, while the Palestinian attacks amounted to 129 attacks.
As for the index of freedom of the press in Palestine, Rimawi explained that it was prepared under international standards, with the participation of Palestinian experts, and focused on eight axes, pointing out that the index is "the first indicator being prepared in Palestine."
According to the results of this indicator, the reality of media freedoms in Palestine has reached 498 points out of a thousand points. In the Gaza Strip, 475 points were obtained, while in the West Bank 492 points.
Al-Rimawi said in this regard that "the signs obtained by the reality of freedom of the press in Palestine within the index came less than 50%, which is a very bad reality."
The methodology of measuring the index of freedom of the press is based on eight axes: legal guarantees for freedom of the press, legal and societal restrictions on press freedom, independence of the media, media and diversity of content, government and self-control, financing policies, transparency and access to information And protect them.
