16 journalists currently languishing in Israeli jails

Israel, in the past years, had been cracking down against Palestinian journalists with at least 16 members of the media currently languishing in Israeli jails, a report released by the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission on the World Press Freedom Day on May 3 said, Petra reported on Saturday.

The Commission urged the international community and all the concerned bodies to "seriously act to get Israeli restrictions against press freedom lifted and secure the release of journalists from detention."

It called for protection of Palestinian journalists and a halt to Israel's "ongoing pursuit and targeting of media people and to support them in defence of free speech and rejection of the policy of gagging mouths and restraining the press in Palestine."

The Director of the Commission's Statistics Department, Abdul Nasser Farwanieh, said Israel's continued attacks on members of the Palestinian media were aimed to intimidate them and "hide the truth captured by cameras' lenses and forcibly prevent them from performing their task."

"Israel aims to coercively keep the Palestinian press away and turn eyes off the actions of its occupation military and security forces and the violations and crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people," said Farwanieh.