Israel’s parliament has approved an extension until the end of November of a temporary order allowing the closure of foreign media outlets deemed harmful to national security and aimed at censoring Al Jazeera.
The Israeli government has sought to make the order, known as the Al Jazeera Law, permanent and last April approved the completion of the closure of the Qatari channel’s offices in Israel by the end of July, when it expired.
The bill, drafted by the Communications Ministry, aims to restrict the activities of foreign broadcasters if there is a “credible likelihood” of harm to Israel’s national security.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government accuses Al Jazeera of “broadcasting against Israel that is aimed at harming national security.”
Since May 5 last year, the Qatari channel has stopped broadcasting on Israeli television, and the Israeli authorities have also blocked all of the Al Jazeera media network’s Internet pages and revoked all accreditation from the organization’s employees.
Al Jazeera is one of the channels with the most prominent journalists in the Gaza Strip and has been reporting since October on hospital bombings, attacks on homes and the deaths of Gazans that experts say amount to war crimes.
Getting first-hand information about what is happening in Gaza is difficult because Israel continues to block international press access to the devastated enclave, where Hamas says more than 160 Gazan journalists have been killed, including intellectuals, writers and “influential people.”
On June 11, more than 70 media outlets and civil society organizations, in coordination with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), signed a petition calling on Israel to allow foreign press access to the Gaza Strip.
“Gaza’s surviving journalists are working under extreme hardship. We call on Israel to provide immediate access to Gaza for independent and foreign media and to protect local journalists as required by international law,” CPJ urged.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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