Washington — Israel’s ongoing response to last year’s Hamas attack has included a spike in arrests of Palestinian journalists in the occupied West Bank, a report released Thursday found.
The country in 2023 ranked as the sixth-worst jailer of journalists globally, with 17 behind bars, all of them jailed after the October 7 terror attack, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.
The annual report, which captures a snapshot of journalists jailed for their work as of December 1, found 320 journalists behind bars overall. Among those held are contributors to VOA and its sister networks Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
China topped the 2023 census, followed closely by Myanmar, Belarus, Russia and Vietnam. Iran tied with Israel for sixth place, each with 17 journalists jailed.
“The message is clear. Journalists hold the powerful to account,” said CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “And those in power often find that incredibly threatening.”
Ginsberg said the data shows how authoritarian regimes abuse laws to “detain and silence journalists.”
“And that’s exactly what it’s intended to do. It’s intended to silence critical voices,” she said.
CPJ has documented more arrests of Palestinian journalists since conducting its December 1, 2023, census. In total, Israel detained 25 since October 7, and as of Wednesday, 19 remained behind bars, CPJ found.
“These high number of arrests are simply a reflection of the broader crackdown that we’re seeing on journalists,” Ginsberg said.
The conflict has already proved to be the deadliest on record for journalists, with at least 83 journalists killed, including 76 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. It has previously denied targeting journalists.
Media-related detentions are common in the West Bank, according to Palestinian political analyst Nour Odeh. But Odeh, a former Al Jazeera reporter, said she has never witnessed anything like the recent wave of arrests.
“The scale is really astounding,” Odeh told VOA from Ramallah, adding that she thinks the goal behind the crackdown is “showing who’s boss.”
Most of those detained are held in administrative detention, CPJ found. That means Israeli authorities can hold the journalist without charge, on the grounds that they believe the journalist is planning to commit a crime in the future, CPJ said.
“You don’t really have to do anything to get arrested. There is no protection,” Odeh said. “There’s nothing that will shield you.”
Another trend in this year’s prison census is the use of non-journalism charges to target reporters, Ginsberg said. Those charges range from money laundering to tax evasion to terrorism.
“In that way, those in power can paint journalists as criminals, as the enemy,” Ginsberg said.
The Chinese government is among the countries that regularly use national security charges to target reporters.
China has long ranked among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, and this year the country ranked in the top spot, with 44 journalists imprisoned.
Nearly half of those — 19 — are Uyghurs, marking a grim intersection between Beijing’s poor press freedom record and its human rights abuses against the majority-Muslim ethnic group.
The United Nations has warned that China’s abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity. Several governments, including the United States, have said the abuses amount to genocide. Beijing denies any wrongdoing.
For Zubayra Shamseden, who works at the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington, the disproportionate jailing of Uyghur reporters is no coincidence.
“For the Chinese government, Uyghur journalists are a dangerous group of people,” Shamseden told VOA. “They try to crack down on Uyghur journalists particularly because they want to shut the Uyghur voice off.”
CPJ’s Ginsberg said journalists who cover minority groups or are from minority groups themselves are among the most persecuted.
In response to VOA’s email requesting comment, a spokesperson at China’s Washington embassy rejected reports that Beijing does not respect media freedom.
“The Chinese government protects press freedom in accordance with law, and gives full play to the role of media and citizens in supervising public opinion,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that some in the U.S. “smear and attack China,” which, they said, “in itself is spreading disinformation.”
Ginsberg pointed to Hong Kong — where media freedom has sharply declined since China enacted the National Security Law in 2020 — as just one piece of evidence to the contrary.
The pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai is currently on trial under the law and, if convicted, he could face life in prison.
Most journalists are jailed in their home countries. But of the 320 reporters held globally, CPJ documented 17 detained in foreign countries — most in Russia.
Of the 22 journalists imprisoned in Russia, 12 are foreign nationals, including two Americans and 10 Ukrainians.
“That tells you not just how Russia wants to control the narrative inside the country, but also how it’s looking to control the narrative outside the country,” Ginsberg said.
Russia’s Washington embassy did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
The Americans are The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Alsu Kurmasheva. International press freedom groups say the charges against both of them are groundless and politically motivated.
Gershkovich, who denies the espionage charges against him, has been detained for nearly 10 months. And Kurmasheva, who was detained in October, has rejected accusations she violated Russia’s foreign agent law.
Paul Beckett, a Washington-based assistant editor at the Journal who is leading the newspaper’s campaign to secure Gershkovich’s release, said the impending one-year anniversary of his colleague’s arrest should reinvigorate efforts to free the reporter.
“This should give everyone a renewed sense of urgency that this has gone on too long and needs to be remedied as quickly as possible,” Beckett told VOA.
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