Israel

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In a Bad Year for Press Freedom, Monitoring Group Calls Israel “Free”

Freedom House set Israel’s ranking at “free” in its 2014 report of press rankings released earlier this month, in a marked contrast to the trend that “global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade.”

Noting that “Israel enjoys a lively, pluralistic media environment in which press freedom is generally respected,” the latest Freedom House report on press freedom in Israel (.pdf) noted Israel’s general respect for press freedom as well as some improvements made during the previous year.

Legal protections for freedom of the press are robust. While the country’s Basic Law does not specifically address the issue, the Supreme Court has affirmed that freedom of expression is an essential component of human dignity. The legal standing of press freedom has also been reinforced by court rulings citing principles laid out in Israel’s Declaration of Independence. …

Knesset members debated a series of legislative proposals in 2013 that would strengthen Israeli press freedom.These included measures to provide greater protection for journalists who obtain national security leaks from confidential sources; prohibit lawsuits designed to silence free expression regarding issues of public interest ; and relax certain defamation laws.

The expansion of Israeli press freedoms comes at the same time that Turkey, once considered the Middle East’s other democracy, had its ranking lowered by Freedom House to “not free.” Turkey has the highest number of journalists incarcerated in the world. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, apparently unhappy with the ranking, recently took to blasting Israel and the United States, but offered no plan to ease restrictions on the Turkish media.

[Photo: The Israel Project / Flickr ]