Israel falls 20 places in World Press Freedom Index

Reporters Without Borders report attributes fall to IDF actions in the West Bank; cites military censorship as "structural problem."

By GABRIELLA TZVIA WEINIGER
Orthodox haredi man reads newspapers media news 390 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem / The Jerusalem Post)
Orthodox haredi man reads newspapers media news 390
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem / The Jerusalem Post)
Israel fell twenty places in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index due to the "actions of the Israel Defense Forces" in the Palestinian Territories. The report comes as all eyes are focused on  the freedom of Israeli media after it was revealed that an Australian native, thus-far known as "Prisoner X," killed himself in an Israeli jail.
The 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, released this week, ranked the Jewish state at 112nd on the global list. The fall, dropping Israel down from 92, was attributed to Israeli actions in Palestinian areas, which used to be given a separate ranking in the index under the label of “Israel extraterritorial."
The report cited Operation Pillar of Defense last November as an example of the IDF "deliberately" targeting journalists and buildings housing media affiliated to Hamas.
It also detailed the "commonplace" arbitrary arrest and detention of Palestinian journalists.
The World Press Freedom Index highlighted the freedom of expression among Israeli journalists, but cited the power of the military censorship as a "structural problem."
The index is measured on an annual global “indicator” of worldwide media freedom, which measures the overall level of freedom of information in the world and the performance of the world’s governments in their entirety.
The media freedom indicator stands at 3395.