Reporters Without Borders Annual Report 2006 - Israel
| Publisher | Reporters Without Borders |
| Publication Date | 3 May 2006 |
| Cite as | Reporters Without Borders, Reporters Without Borders Annual Report 2006 - Israel, 3 May 2006, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/46e690bdc.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The Israeli media were once again in 2005 the only ones in the region that had genuine freedom to speak out. But the government did not allow such freedom in the Palestinian territories it occupies. Israeli soldiers discriminated against Arab journalists and abuses against them, whether they worked for local media or pan-Arab TV stations such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, increased during the year. The Israeli army hounded, threatened, summoned and arrested them, sometimes without subsequent trial.
Awad Rajoub, a Palestinian journalist with Al-Jazeera's website, was arrested on 30 November and was still being held at the start of 2006. The army said his arrest at home in Doura had nothing to do with him being a journalist. A dozen journalists, nearly all Israeli Arabs, were summoned and interrogated about their work and political views by the Israeli intelligence service, Shabak, which suspected them of having links with the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
Nabil al-Mazzawi, an Al-Jazeera cameraman on the West Bank, was beaten on 4 November by Israeli soldiers and held for several hours after he filmed a demonstration against the wall separating Israel and the Occupied Territories. Majdi al-Arabid, cameraman for the Israeli TV stations Channel 10, was wounded in the stomach and the leg by gunfire as he filmed Israeli troops entering Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza.
French journalist Houda Ibrahim, of the radio station RMC Moyen-Orient, who had been sent by the French government to train Palestinian journalists, was refused entry to the West Bank from Jordan on 3 July.
