Gaza costs Israel its reputation for press freedom

James Reinl, United Nations Correspondent

• Last Updated: May 03. 2009 12:24AM UAE / May 2. 2009 8:24PM GMT

NEW YORK // Israeli restrictions on journalists during its Gaza offensive have seen the state downgraded in a survey of press freedom, removing the Middle East’s lone example of a “free” media environment.

A study made public by Freedom House on Friday saw Israel move from the “free” category to “partly free” after officials curtailed reporters and sought to influence coverage of the three-week invasion of the Gaza Strip, which ended on Jan 18.

The global report describes the region as having “the world’s lowest level of press freedom” with only Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt ranking as “partly free” and all other countries as “not free”.

Karin Karlekar, the report’s managing editor, described her “frustration” at witnessing several years of improvements in press freedom across the Middle East come to an end.

“This year put a stop to the positive trend we had been seeing,” Ms Karlekar said. “Most of the improvements were coming from the pan-Arab satellite television channels and web-based media, but that came to a halt as governments started cracking down on bloggers and online journalists, using legal and extralegal means.”

The Freedom House survey accords with a similar report released in February by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Attacks on the Press, which criticised the curtailing of Arab satellite news channels.

The 341-page study described how Qatar-based Al Jazeera and other networks faced reporting restrictions after a regulation framework was agreed upon by a 22-member council of Arab information ministers in Feb 2008.

Ms Karlekar said “repressive legal structures and a fair amount of self-censorship” left the region “in pretty bad shape” with the public’s access to fair and balanced regional news sources seriously undermined.

Despite efforts by many Middle Eastern parliamentarians to upgrade media laws to international standards, the researcher said that “once they do, there doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement”.

The UAE, which the report describes as “not free” and comes 69th in the list of 195 evaluated countries, is processing a new law that New York-based Human Rights Watch alleges could “interfere with the media’s ability to report on sensitive subjects”.

Globally, the Freedom House survey revealed press freedoms declined around the world last year, with 70 countries, or 36 per cent, rated “free”, 61 (31 per cent) rated “partly free” and 64 (33 per cent) rated “not free”.

Freedom House, which is funded by the US government and private groups and has conducted annual studies of press freedom since 1980, said that 72 countries were rated free the previous year.

“The journalism profession today is up against the ropes and fighting to stay alive, as pressures from governments, other powerful actors and the global economic crisis take an enormous toll,” said its executive director, Jennifer Windsor.

jreinl@thenational.ae