No news is good news [electronic resource] : abuses against Journalists by Palestinian Security Forces / [written and researched by Bill Van Esveld and Saleh Hijazi with additional research by Fares Akram ; edited by Joe Stork]

Title from PDF title page (Human Rights Watch, viewed April 8, 2011).

"April 2011"--Table of contents page.

"This report was written and researched by Bill Van Esveld, researcher, and Saleh Hijazi, research assistant, with additional research by Fares Akram. Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division, edited the report."--P. 35.

Summary -- Background -- West Bank -- Reports of Increased Harassment -- The Role of PA Security Forces -- Gaza -- Palestinian Authority Abuse of Journalists in the West Bank -- Muhanad Salahat -- Mustafa Sabri -- Tariq Abu Zeid -- Khalid Amayreh -- Samer Rweeshid -- Watan Television: Assaults on Journalists and Raids on Station -- Gaza -- Nofouz al-Bakri -- Hamza Beheesi -- Legal Standards -- Recommendations -- To the Palestinian Authority -- To the United States and the EU -- To Hamas -- Acknowledgments.

"Severe harassment by Palestinian Authority and Hamas security forces of Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza has had a pronounced chilling effect on freedom of expression. This report documents cases in which Palestinian security forces tortured, beat, and arbitrarily detained journalists, and subjected them to other forms of harassment. The report, based on interviews with Palestinian journalists, journalist syndicate representatives, and Palestinian Authority officials, focuses on seven cases in which Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces abused journalists, and documents two cases of abuse by Hamas security forces in Gaza, where the situation for journalists is also dire. Violations of journalists' rights by Palestinian security forces are a worsening trend, both in the West Bank and Gaza. Incidents of abuse in 2010 increased by 45 percent over the previous year, according to one Palestinian rights group. Since Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the majority of abuses against journalists in both the West Bank and Gaza have been related to tensions between the PA and Hamas. In the West Bank, the primary targets are journalists suspected of working for television, radio, websites and newspapers seen as favoring Hamas or other Islamist groups. PA security services have also targeted independent journalists suspected of working on critical reports. Human Rights Watch cannot point to instructions from PA leaders to the security services directing them to commit these violations, but the utter failure of the PA leadership to address the prevailing culture of impunity for such abuses suggests that they reflect government policy. In Gaza, Hamas internal security agents and government officials have intimidated journalists by summoning them for questioning and warning them that their coverage was "biased." Shortly before this report was published, Hamas internal security services raided news agency offices, smashed equipment, and beat and threatened journalists. A more in-depth focus on abuses by Hamas in Gaza as well as by Israeli military forces throughout the occupied Palestinian territories will be the subject of future reporting. Overall, the alleged abuses against journalists take place in the context of impunity for serious human rights violations generally by PA security service officials. The report calls on the PA and Hamas to hold their security forces to account for abuses. Because of the systematic nature of gross abuses by security forces, it calls on the US and the EU, which provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the PA annually, including direct security assistance, to condition support for PA security agencies on the PA taking effective steps toward accountability."--P. [4] of cover.