{"id":37317,"date":"2019-03-25T17:23:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T17:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37317"},"modified":"2019-03-25T17:23:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T17:23:40","slug":"palestinian-journalist-wins-appeal-over-gaza-corruption-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37317","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian journalist wins appeal over Gaza corruption report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Palestinian journalist has been acquitted on appeal over an investigative report about corruption in the besieged Gaza Strip<\/a> on Monday, according to Amnesty International and local media reports.<\/p>\n

Hajar Harb, a 34-year-old Palestinian journalist from Gaza, revealed in 2016 investigation that doctors in Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry were writing false medical reports to allow healthy people to leave the strip for treatment in exchange for money.<\/p>\n

One of the few reasons Israeli authorities permit Palestinians to leave the blockaded strip is to seek medical treatment abroad.<\/p>\n

In October of that year, two doctors launched legal proceedings accusing her of defamation and “publishing false information,” Amnesty International said<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

The investigative journalist\u00a0was tried while away in neighbouring Jordan receiving treatment for breast cancer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Gaza youth protests: Hamas cracks down on demonstrators<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

On June 4, 2017, she was sentenced to six months in prison and fined with 1,000 shekels ($276), but the appeals court overruled the decision.<\/p>\n

Rights groups had criticized the case as a violation of free speech in the enclave and have said that fair litigation is not guaranteed in Hamas’ judiciary system.<\/p>\n

Harb celebrated her acquittal on Monday, calling it “the most beautiful thing”.<\/p>\n

Fathi Sabah, the head of a campaign group supporting Harb, told reporters in Gaza the appeals court “acquitted journalist Hajar Harb of all charges and closed her case”.<\/p>\n

“This win represents a victory for Hajar as well as for press freedom,” he said.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International also welcomed the decision on Monday.<\/p>\n

“It is really good news that Hajar Harb was acquitted today, she was standing a trial that should not have taken place to begin with,” Saleh Higazi, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

“We hope that the Gaza authorities take this opportunity to signal that they are serious about freedom of expression and the press.”<\/p>\n

According to Amnesty, Harb was summoned and interrogated at least four times in the summer of 2016, following the broadcast of the report.<\/p>\n

Harb had also told Amnesty that she was verbally harassed and received threats from a several doctors in Gaza, although none of their names, faces or job titles were featured in the report.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms recorded 77 violations of press freedom in the Palestinian Authority-run occupied West Bank, and 37 such cases in Gaza, which is administered by Hamas.<\/p>\n

Gaza has been under a land, sea and air blockade imposed by Israel since 2007 when Hamas – the group that governs the Strip – took over power after winning a parliamentary election.<\/p>\n

The group has recently cracked down violently on street protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Palestinian journalist has been acquitted on appeal over an investigative report about corruption in the besieged Gaza Strip on Monday, according to Amnesty International and local media reports. Hajar Harb, a 34-year-old Palestinian journalist from Gaza, revealed in 2016 investigation that doctors in Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry were writing false medical reports to allow…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}