Amnesty International described the closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s Ramallah office by the Israeli occupation authorities as “another brazen assault on the right to freedom of expression and a crushing blow to press freedom.” It called on it to “immediately” reverse the decision.
This came in response to the Israeli occupation authorities raiding Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah two days ago and ordering it to be closed for 45 days.
“This move clearly demonstrates the lengths to which the Israeli authorities are prepared to go in order to protect themselves from critical media coverage and public scrutiny,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
She stressed that the closure of the channel’s offices came “to limit reporting on Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.”
The organization warned that “amidst the escalating violations of international law, including military operations in the occupied West Bank and the ongoing unlawful attacks in the occupied Gaza Strip with the real risk of genocide, the access of journalists to shed light on the ongoing events is of utmost importance.”
She called for all journalists to have the right to carry out their work “freely and safely, without fear of arrest, harassment, intimidation or any other form of reprisal.”
The prominent international human rights organization recalled that the Israeli authorities had already prevented most international journalists from freely entering the Gaza Strip to cover the ongoing war, “and now they are expanding their crackdown on the media to the occupied West Bank.”
The organization urged Israel to immediately rescind the order to close Tel Aviv Tribune’s office, and to end its harassment, intimidation and obstruction of journalists and other media workers in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The organization quoted the Committee to Protect Journalists as saying that at least 116 journalists and other media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, “making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began collecting data in 1992.”