On World Press Freedom Day, the Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy expresses its solidarity with Palestinian journalists detained in Israeli occupation prisons, whose number has reached 45. They are facing harsh detention conditions and ongoing violations that affect their freedom and dignity.
The center notes that the arrest of journalists comes as part of a direct targeting of their role in conveying the truth and documenting events on the ground. Since October 2023, the occupation has escalated its measures against them, arresting more than 220 male and female journalists amid an ongoing campaign aimed at limiting media coverage and weakening the presence of the Palestinian narrative in the media space.
The center affirms that a number of detained journalists are being held under administrative detention, with their detention repeatedly extended without clear charges or an actual trial. This leaves them in open-ended detention, in addition to the isolation, ill-treatment, denial of visits, lack of health care, and deprivation of the most basic rights guaranteed to prisoners under international law.
The center also points out that among the detainees are journalists from the Gaza Strip who were arrested during the ongoing genocidal war, under complex field conditions. They were detained while carrying out their journalistic work or while attempting to cover events, reflecting a clear targeting of journalism during this period.
The center states that the continued detention of this number of journalists, alongside repeated arrests of others, directly affects the reality of media work and restricts journalists’ ability to perform their duties freely. It also affects the flow of information and its access to the public.
The center adds that what detained journalists are facing is not limited to deprivation of liberty, but also includes harsh psychological and living pressures in a detention environment that lacks humanitarian standards, further increasing their suffering and that of their families.
The center considers the continued detention of journalists a violation of press freedom and the right of access to information, and a breach of the basic principles on which media work is built around the world.
The center calls on international and human rights institutions, as well as journalists’ unions, to take serious action to pressure for the release of detained journalists, an end to the policy of administrative detention, and guarantees for their protection from violations inside prisons.
It also calls for broader attention to the cases of detained journalists and for their cases to be pursued in international forums, in a way that contributes to ending their suffering and putting an end to their continued detention.
The center affirms that the Palestinian journalist, despite arrest and restrictions, will remain committed to the role of conveying the truth, and that these violations will not silence this mission.
Freedom for imprisoned journalists, and victory to the voice of truth.
The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy
Sunday, May 3, 2026
