Alarming use of administrative detention by Israeli authorities amid war represents silencing of dissenting voices, says committee
The Committee to Protect Journalists urged the UN to launch an investigation into Israel's imprisonment of Palestinian journalists.
“Israel is utilizing administrative detention to detain a record number of Palestinian journalists without charge during the Israel-Gaza war,” according to an urgent appeal submitted by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on March 25, 2024.
In a press release, the committee added that the appeal urges the Working Group to examine the situations of journalists Moath Amarneh, Mohammad Badr, and Ameer Abu Iram, all of whom have been held in Israeli custody without formal charges since Oct. 7.
“The alarming use of administrative detention by Israeli authorities amid the Israel-Gaza war represents the silencing of dissenting voices, most notably journalists,” said CPJ Director of Advocacy and Communications Gypsy Guillen Kaiser.
“The incidence of administrative detention is a concerning bellwether for Israel's efforts to restrict the public's right to know what is happening in Gaza,” he added.
Also, 39 media freedom organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), on Friday called on the Media Freedom Coalition member states to take “meaningful action” for the safety of journalists in Gaza.
“This requires action from your member states to consistently and publicly call for the treatment of Palestinian journalists, who continue to report from Gaza in spite of the risks, as civilians according to established norms of International Humanitarian Law, as well as urging for the immediate and unfettered access of international journalists to Gaza,” the media organizations said in a statement.
The statement also criticized the “collective official silence of the (Media Freedom Coalition) member states” regarding the killings of journalists in Gaza, warning that this silence significantly undermines their capacity to advocate for media freedom on a global scale.
“Despite recent UN figures that at least 122 journalists have been killed, the collective official silence of the MFC member states as a group regarding these killings, with increasing evidence of journalists being specifically targeted, along with the lack of actions to ensure that international journalists can access and report from Gaza, seriously diminishes our collective ability to credibly stand up for media freedom globally,” said the statement.
Calling them “our eyes and ears” on the ground, the statement added that journalists in Gaza are confronted with grave threats to their safety and require immediate assistance and solidarity.
“Finally, the growing evidence of targeted killings of journalists in this war requires a clear and joint call for prompt, independent, effective and thorough investigations into these killings,” said the statement.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed.
More than 32,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, besides causing mass destruction, displacement, and conditions of famine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza. It said: “Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine ... but that famine is setting in.”
