It has been a bad few weeks for the Palestinian media. On Monday Apr. 2, Yousef Al-Shayeb, the latest journalist to be held for investigation by the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), was released on bail pending trial – but faces defamation charges and a claim for 6 million U.S. dollars from the plaintiffs.  The same day, Israeli police shut down a Palestinian media initiative in Jerusalem on the day of its scheduled launch, according to news reports and local journalists.

“We are concerned that the investigation tactics used recently by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority serve to demoralize the media and dissuade journalists from reporting independently,” IPI Acting Deputy Director Anthony Mills said. “The detentions of journalists by both Palestinian and Israeli security forces, and the seizure of journalists’ equipment, are unacceptable in societies that claim to uphold democratic principles.”

Media Network Raided

Israeli police raided Hona Al-Quds (Here Jerusalem) shortly before a launch event that was to be held simultaneously via Skype in Jerusalem and Ramallah, according to news reports and journalists. The initiative was to be a brand new online media network set up by Al-Quds University’s Institute for Modern Media, and will include radio, television and online news, according to AFP. Two employees, staff member Adel Ruished and security guard Mohannad Izheman, were detained for questioning.

“Israeli occupation forces confiscated equipment and devices, and demanded the evacuation of the headquarters by military order, which prevents its use without permission of official bodies in Israel,” the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) reported.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenbaum told IPI, “There was a signed document by the minister of internal security that was handed out and given to those who were in charge of the offices there [at the media center in Al-Quds], that all media activities connected to Hamas or any terrorist organization or political party would not be allowed to take place in Jerusalem.”

“We’ve closed down offices in the past in Jerusalem and that was for political activities,” he said, and explained that in Jerusalem, “technically” no political activities from the Palestinian Authority are allowed to take place. Rosenbaum said that the equipment was seized and two staff members detained as part of the investigation.  (Izheman, the security guard, was released later on Monday, but Ruished remained in detention as of Tuesday evening, reports said).

The director of the University’s media institute, Lucy Nusseibeh, told Ma’an News Agency that the employees were given an order signed by the Israeli minister of internal security that deemed the event a “banned initiative of the Palestinian Authority.” But the University argues that it has been registered as an independent institution since 1996, “neither administered nor governed by the Palestinian Authority,” AFP said.

This is the most recent raid in a string of raids on Palestinian media by Israeli forces. Last month, Quds Educational TV – also run by the media department of the University – was raided and shut down along with Watan TV. The Israeli Communications Ministry told IPI at the time that the stations’ transmissions had been interfering with “Israeli frequencies”. No one at that ministry, or the IDF, or the prime minister’s office would explain why computers and documents had been confiscated from both of the television stations – so one can but assume that equipment, too, was taken for investigation.

“They confiscated Watan’s broadcasting transmitters, microwave equipment, editing units, and computers containing station information, reports by our journalists, advertising productions for our sponors, and campaigns for our funders as well as financial records,” Watan TV’s General Director Mu’amar Orabi said in a statement emailed on Mar. 5. “We also suffered a loss of staff morale for all of the work that they had done over the last three months that is now gone; it must now be recreated.”

Yousef Al-Shayeb Released on Bail

The Palestinian Authority (P.A.) has recently undertaken its own seemingly punitive investigations, in this case against journalists and others deemed to have insulted top officials.

Journalist Yousef Al-Shayeb was released Monday after spending a week in detention following a complaint by the Palestinian foreign minister and officials from the Palestinian diplomatic mission in France, who claim that the reporter knowingly defamed them in an article published by Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad in January.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki told Ma’an News Agency that journalists should “expel al-Shayeb from their ranks. He has harmed the Palestinian media and published (false) reports. He should have been more professional.” Al-Malki claims the journalist knew his allegations were wrong before the article went to print.

Al-Shayeb, for his part, says his story was based “on sources and on documents” – and said he is taking legal action against Al-Ghad, which has distanced itself from him and his story since it was first published.

The reporter was first taken into custody for investigation on Mar. 26 in connection with a complaint filed by the foreign minister, his envoy to Paris and the envoy’s assistant, Al-Shayeb told IPI. He said he has been asked to reveal his sources for the story, but refuses to do so unless so ordered by the courts, a right he is granted as a journalist under Palestinian law.

After an initial 48 hours in custody, a court extended his detention by 15 days. Al-Shayeb went on hunger strike, refusing food and drink, while his incensed colleagues in the journalism community held a sit-in and announced that they would boycott the Palestinian Authority’s annual press freedom award, Omar Nazzal of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate told IPI.

In the wake of protests, Al-Shayeb was released Monday on payment of bond equalling 10,000 Jordanian dinars (approx. 10,600 euros), pending trial. If he is found guilty and the full 6 million U.S. dollars (approx. 4.5 million euros) are granted to the Palestinian foreign minister, his envoy and the envoy’s assistant, and if Al-Shayeb is unable to pay, he could face jail time, attorney Raed Abdlhameed told IPI.

Yet Al-Shayeb has yet to be charged, according to Abdlhameed, who is confident that charges will be dropped against his client as he was merely doing his job.

“The bad thing is the feeling that they are dealing with you as a criminal [because as a journalist you write about corruption]” Al-Shayeb said. “Maybe [the story] is right, maybe it’s wrong – but let us investigate.  If it’s wrong, tell us your sources. If the court says give me your sources I’ll give them.”

“We condemn the disproportionate damages of 6 million U.S. dollars that are being demanded by the Palestinian officials involved in this case, especially as it is clear that reporter Yousef Al-Shayeb would be unable to pay this amount, and could therefore face jail time as a result of his work,” said IPI Acting Deputy Director Anthony Mills.

Heavy-Handed Investigations

Al-Shayeb is but the latest journalist to be detained for investigation by authorities, whether in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, according to reports. The Palestinian Authority has lately detained a number of journalists for questioning, including over comments they posted on Facebook and elsewhere, according to reports.

In January, Rami Samara of WAFA news agency was questioned for three hours over a Facebook note that criticized leaders in the West Bank. This week, 23 year-old reporter Tariq Khamis of Zamn Press website was interrogated by Palestinian Preventive Security Forces over Facebook comments about Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, a former journalist and media lecturer who has been in detention for two weeks as a result of her own Facebook comments. She is under investigation for allegedly insulting P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the Associated Press.

“It makes people think twice on reporting things or commenting on things,” one journalist who has been covering the recent events told IPI, noting that “the official TV stations either belong to the P.A. or are close to the P.A.,” so many people turn to social media – particularly Facebook – to express their criticism.

But while journalists are regularly detained for questioning in the Palestinian Authority, suspects must be told what potential charges they face, according to MADA General Director Moussa Rimawi. He explained that Israeli authorities, in contrast, have the option to continually renew the terms of suspects’ “administrative detention,” without informing the suspect or his lawyer of the charges or potential charges she or he faces. Four Palestinian journalists are currently under administrative detention in Israel, according to Rimawi.

MADA has also recorded a number of detentions by authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza strip. Most appalling is the recent detention and beating of Al Shoa’lah news website editor Saher Al Alqraa’. Al Alqraa told MADA that his home was raided on Feb. 17 and his computers, cameras and documents confiscated before he was taken away for investigation. Over the course of his three-day detention, the journalist was “subject to torture and humiliation,” MADA reported, noting that internal security forces released him after three days, and “asked him not to mention the incident to any anybody, especially the media outlets.”

“The detention or imprisonment of journalists in retaliation for their work– before or after trial – are a violation of the right to press freedom and have a chilling effect on the media’s ability to work,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Barbara Trionfi. “We call on the authorities in Israel and the Palestinian Territories to cease attacks on the media.”