According to the new Freedom House Press report, Israel dropped from Free to Partly Free status. The new ranking, though, remains just beyond the threshold to obtain a Free ranking. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority ranked as Not Free and Israel maintains the best overall free press score in the region. A quick summary of the Middle East section of the report states:
“Middle East and North Africa: The region continues to have the world’s lowest level of press freedom. Restrictions on journalists and official attempts to influence coverage during the Gaza conflict led to Israel’s Partly Free status. The Israeli-Occupied Territories/Palestinian Authority saw declines with both Hamas and Fatah intimidating journalists. Iraq saw the security environment for journalists improve and new legal protections for media in the Kurdish areas.”
An essay with the report describes Israel and the territories as:
“In terms of numerical movements, scores for most countries in the region were stagnant in 2008. However, Israel, the only country in the group to be consistently rated Free, moved into the Partly Free range due to the heightened conflict in Gaza, which triggered increased travel restrictions on both Israeli and foreign reporters; official attempts to influence media coverage of the conflict within Israel; and greater self-censorship and biased reporting, particularly during the outbreak of open war in late December.
Negative movement was also seen in the Israeli-Occupied Territories/Palestinian Authority (which includes both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), which saw a two-point decline due to worsening intimidation by both major political factions that restricts critical and independent coverage and the diversity of viewpoints available. Journalists faced pressure and threats from all sides, including from Israeli forces present in some parts of the territories.”
