Israel is in the World Press Freedom Index

The World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders last week showed that Israel has fallen to 97th place out of 180 countries included in the index, after it was ranked 88th in 2022. Among other things, it stated that what it describes as a healthy environment The freedom of the Israeli press is being undermined, after a government came to power that threatens the freedom of the press, in reference to the current sixth government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

With careful follow-up, it can be said that the results of the index were almost completely ignored by the Israeli media itself from end to end, with a few exceptions, most notably the website, The Seventh Eye, which specializes in media criticism, which conveyed the comment of the Journalists Association in Israel on the index, She stressed that after the reduction of future credit to the Israeli economy, we are now witnessing a downgrade of Israel's rating in the field of press freedom, which proves that many disturbing things are piling up, and paints a bleak picture of a clear and immediate danger to democracy in the country.

In order to show the sharpness of the result related to Israel in the index, the site itself deliberately draws attention to two things: First, Israel's grading in the index this year was lower than countries that are not considered democratic, such as Albania, Gabon, Mongolia, Zambia, Guinea-Bissau, Northern Cyprus, Togo, Liberia, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Sahel. ivory and others. The second is that Israel has an influence in grading another country, Greece, which has fallen to 107th place due to its use of an Israeli spying system against journalists.

The World Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries prepared and published by Reporters Without Borders based on the organization's assessment of the press freedom record in each country. It is approved on the basis of a questionnaire sent to participating organizations with the aforementioned organization, including 14 freedom of expression groups on five continents and 130 correspondents around the world, in addition to journalists, researchers, legal experts, and human rights activists. The questionnaire, as it appears on the organization's official website, raises questions about attacks against journalists and media workers, in addition to facts that prove pressures on a free press.

In previous reports from the Index, it was claimed that “the Israeli press enjoys real freedom that is unparalleled in the region.” Despite this, “journalists face most of the hostility of government ministers, in addition to military censorship and decisions to prevent coverage of some issues, including those related to corruption, in addition to procedures Silencing the mouths adopted by the financial and business circles. The reports described how numerous "defamation campaigns against the media by some politicians supported by their parties and their supporters have become frequent, as a number of journalists were subjected to anonymous harassment and threats, which forced some of them to seek personal protection for their safety."

It was pointed out at the time that the journalists who carried out investigative investigations related to suspicions of corruption that turned into articles in the official indictment filed against Prime Minister Netanyahu were the ones who were the ones who were the ones who were the ones who were the most persecuted and threatened.

Naturally, in addition to the dangers the current Israeli government carries in its bowels to the freedom of the press, which indicate the latest changes in Israeli society and its political field, the current year's index, like the previous years' indices, stops at dangers that it describes as traditional threatening the freedom of the press and Israel is plagued by it. For many years, such as restrictions on Palestinian journalists, strict military censorship restrictions, and financial and business sector constraints.

None of the previous reports failed to grasp the effects of these risks, or to form a briefing on them based on facts only. With regard to military censorship alone, a recent report by the American Freedom House organization stated that all printed articles on security issues are subject to military censorship. Likewise, the Israeli government press office withholds press cards from journalists from time to time to prevent them from entering Israel under the pretext of "security considerations." About "Arab 48"