20 October 2004
MEDIA IGNORING PRESS FREEDOM VIOLATIONS IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE CONFLICT: IPI
While Middle East news coverage is mostly focused on Iraq these days, "gross violations of press freedom" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are continuing and media are not paying enough attention to them, says a new report released by the International Press Institute (IPI).
The IPI Intifada Report documents attacks on the press that have occurred since the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, began in September 2000. It finds that the Israeli government has been responsible for close to 90 per cent of the violations.
IPI says the overwhelming majority of victims are Palestinian journalists. Twelve journalists have been killed in the past four years, of which 10 were Palestinian.
In all but a handful of cases, the perpetrators have gone unpunished. IPI says this has encouraged a "climate of impunity in which Israeli soldiers, police officers and settlers, as well as Palestinian police and militants, are given implicit, or even explicit, authority to commit press freedom violations."
Read the full report here: http://www.freemedia.at/r_intifada/r_intifada_intro.htm
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