Unable upload images

Hi I updated a wordpress website last week. The image upload was fine. Changed the theme. No problems then.

Then I tried to upload an image via media upload on wordpress dashboard the other day. I noticed it didn’t work. The image upload looks different. Instead of showing images…it shows them as attachments. I’m unable to view old and new images. And the links to the files don’t end in .jpg or .png.

For some reason the images on the actual website are fine.

I tried to access the files using their links.
I get an error saying I am not allowed to access the images.

I tried to view uploads via web/wp-content/uploads etc

I get this:

403 Error.
You don’t have permission to access /wp-content/uploads/ on this server.
Server unable to read htaccess file, denying access to be safe

I’ve tried changing the permissions on the uploads directory to 774 and no effect.

I’ve also noticed that there’s multiple htaccess files and they’re empty. Not sure how as I haven’t edited them.

Many thanks.

The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]