Two citizen journalists were killed, three were injured, while eight reporters and photographers suffered various injuries in Syria. During the protests in Lebanon, security forces, supporters of political parties and protesters carried out violations against media professionals: four were beaten, one was injured with a rubber-coated bullet, one was hit with a stone, a camera was destroyed, a phone was snatched, and a journalist suffered suffocation after being sprayed with teargas. In addition, a journalist and an activist were beaten, while a journalist was prevented from covering events. Also, three activists and two journalists were summoned for questioning and others were fined over publications. The Israeli forces wounded four Palestinian photographers with rubber-coated bullets in the West Bank. They also attacked two journalists and two photographers with teargas grenades and pepper spray, arrested three journalists and two photographers and prevented a writer from entering the territory. In addition, the Israeli police arrested a researcher in Jerusalem, a journalist was threatened in the Gaza strip, and a newspaper was heavily fined in Jordan.

Below is a detailed summary of the violations monitored by the SKeyes Center in the four countries.

In Lebanon, protesters assaulted MTV reporter Joyce Akiki and cameraman Christian Abi Nader and hit them with stones (02/02). Also, Free Patriotic Movement supporters snatched reporter Mario Badr’s phone from his hand, as well as his microphone with which they beat him on the head. They also snatched the phone of photographer Jihad Zahri by force (02/05). In addition, protesters assaulted reporter Rima Hamdan and cameraman Maroun Nimr and broke his camera. Besides, photographer Jad Ghorayeb was hit with police-fired rubber-coated bullet and reporter Lara El-Hachem’s microphone was taken away by force. Annahar Reporter Asrar Shbaro suffered from suffocation due to teargas grenades (02/11). She was also banned from covering the arrival of passengers from Iran at the Beirut airport, amid controversy over incoming flights from a COVID-19 infected country, and photos were erased from her phone (2/24). Furthermore, activist Firas Bou Hatoum was assaulted because of a Facebook post critical of Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan (02/05), and the bodyguards of former minister and banker Marwan Kheireddine beat journalist Mohammad Zbib because of his views on the banking crisis (02/12).

Summonses continued over Facebook posts, as journalist Moussa Assi appeared before the criminal judge (02/05), activist Firas Bou Hatoum before State Security (02/13), and former news anchor Dima Sadek and activist Gino Raidy before the Criminal Investigation (02/11). Judge Ghada Aoun issued a decision to arrest activist Charbel Khoury following a tweet he had posted and then released him after dropping the charges against him (02/24).

The Court of Cassation approved the decision of the Publications Court to condemn TV host Joe Maalouf on charges of “defamation and slander” against former minister Gebran Bassil (02/25). The Criminal Court had previously fined him, as well as LBCI’s Chairman Pierre Daher and Hala Fursan for defamation, in the complaint filed by Father Hanna Khadra (02/06). The Publications Court also questioned number of LBCI journalists in the complaint filed by Dr. Nader Saab (02/06) related to the death of a former patient of his. In addition, Al-Akhbar journalist Radwan Murtada appeared before the Publications Court for "publishing secret investigations" (02/27).

In Syria, two citizen journalists died while three others were injured, along with four reporters and four photographers during the month of February 2020. In the Idlib province, citizen journalists Amjad Aktalati (02/04) and Abdul-Nasser Hajj Hamdan (02/20) were killed by Russian air strikes, and citizen journalists Abdul-Wajid Hajj Astifi (11/2), Ibrahim Mohammad Al-Darwish, Ahmad Mohammad Rahal (02/20), and correspondent Mustafa Ziad Al-Khalaf (02/03) were wounded. In the province of Aleppo, correspondents Shadi Helwa (02/12), Dia’ Qaddour and Kanana Alloush (02/02), as well as photographers Ibrahim Kahil, Sahib Al-Masri (02/02), Sharif Abs and George Orfali (02/12) were wounded.

While members of the Syrian Democratic Forces attacked citizen journalist Bahaa Sulaima Al-Hussein in Deir Ezzor (02/05), Tahrir Al-Sham group detained citizen journalist Mohammad Hassan Al-Hussein (02/12) in the countryside of Idlib, while citizen journalist Hala Abdul-Hay Ibrahim was prevented from covering developments near the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey (02/14).

In Jordan, a court fined Al-Ghad daily JOD 150,000 (nearly USD 211,500) (02/23), in the lawsuit filed by the lawyer of late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Khalil Al-Dulaimi, against the newspaper, represented by its publisher, Mohammad Alian, its former editor Moussa Barhouma and journalist Moayed Abu Subieh. He demanded approximately USD 1.5 million in compensation for what he described as the "material loss" he had suffered as a result of the publication by Al-Ghad of his book "Saddam Hussein from the American prison cell... This is what happened" in 2010. The decision ruled that the amount of the fine must be divided between Alyan, Barhouma and Abu Sobeih. The alternative would be for Al-Ghad to be under seizure for 45 days from the decision’s date of issue.

In the Gaza Strip, journalist Hassan Duhan was threatened over the phone after he published a report on the demolition of homes and farms, south of Gaza, by the Hamas government (02/13). While the Hamas military court acquitted comedian Adel Al-Mashoukhi on charges of “insulting religious sentiment and opposing public policy” (02/03), the Khan Yunis court postponed the trial of journalist Ihab Fasfus for "Internet misuse" for the seventh time (02/24).

In the West Bank, the Israeli forces continued their violations against Palestinian journalists, reporters, photographers and writers, wounding photographer Abdul-Mohsin Shalada in the head (02/02), photographer Mohammad Abu Ghani in the stomach (02/06) and photographer Tariq Yusef in the thigh (02/07) with rubber-coated bullets. They also targeted reporters Khaled Badir, Hafiz Abu Sabra, and photographers Hazem Nasser and Mu'tasim Saqf Al-Heit (02/25) with teargas grenades and pepper spray. Journalists Mohammad Melhem (02/02) and Mujahid Muflih (02/26) were also arrested. Also in February, reporter Alaa Al-Rimawi (02/19) and photographers Mohammad Awad (02/19) and Musa Al Qawasmi (02/27) were detained to prevent them from carrying out their journalistic work. Israeli forces also prevented writer Chaker Khazaal from entering Palestine at Al-Karama border crossing for "security reasons" (02/18).

In addition, the Palestinian security forces detained journalist Mohammad Mona and released him several hours later, then summoned him again two days afterwards (02/25). They also raided the house of journalist Ayman Qwareq with the aim of arresting him, but could not find him (02/27). The Ramallah Magistrate Court has once again postponed the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper shutdown case for two additional months (02/06), as well as the cases of freelance journalist Rami Samara and SKeyes colleague Naela Khalil for another month (02/20).

In the 1948 Territories, the Israeli police arrested researcher Khalil Al-Tafakji after his house in Jerusalem was raided on suspicion of "compromising State Security" (02/26). Meanwhile, the Lod court continued the trial of film director Mohammad Bakri on charges of "defamation and slander" (02/06). In addition, the Jatt local council prevented the Alhtlana platform from providing a live coverage of its session (02/04).