Group: 80 percent of Palestinian journalists self-censor
Published yesterday (updated) 17/10/2014 10:25
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=733581

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian media rights groups released a report on
Thursday estimating that over 80 percent of Palestinian journalists
practiced self-censorship.

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, or MADA, released
a report of its findings following two studies and a meeting on
self-censorship and its impact on freedom of expression and media in
Palestine.

General director of MADA, Mousa Rimawi, said that self-censorship is the
most "serious and dangerous kind of censorship" journalists face, noting
that the practice began during Israel's occupation, before the establishment
of the Palestinian Authority.

Rimawi said that direct censorship by Israeli authorities during the First
Intifada in the late eighties led to self censorship among Palestinian
journalists as media outlets used different methods of circumventing Israeli
media restrictions.

Self-censorship continued after the creation of the PA, Rimawi said, and has
escalated "concretely and dangerously" since the split between Hamas and
Fatah in 2007.

During a meeting entitled "Self-censorship: Is there a way to get rid of
it?" dozens of journalists and media students were presented with the
results of two studies by MADA which found that 80 percent of journalists
surveyed practiced self-censorship on some or all of the material which they
had written or produced.

Over 68 percent of journalists said that their work, or their colleagues
work, had been banned from being published at one time or another by their
employer.

Journalists also explained that self-censorship was not only related to
official institutions, but is also related to fears that society and
publishers are not willing to discuss taboo subjects.

In Dec. 2013, MADA released a statement documenting "worrying violations"
against media freedoms in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The report mentioned several arbitrary arrests of journalists by PA forces
in the West Bank and Hamas security forces in Gaza.
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