Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) strongly condemned arrest of journalist Walid Khaled, former director of "Filastin" newspaper office, in West Bank by the Preventive Apparatus, from his home in Iskaka village, last Tuesday. Mada demanded in a statement the release of journalist Khaled, who started refusing to eat, to talk and even to take medicines, and urged the Authority security apparatus to stop the policy of detention of journalists in the West Bank. The center, concerned with defending journalists and monitoring violations against media freedoms in the Palestinian territories, said that the policy of detaining journalists has escalated this year, and that in the first half of 2012 it monitored and recorded 9 violations against journalists and media institutions.