Ref: 19/2014
On Monday, 05 May 2014, the Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) organized an activity on press freedoms in
Palestine on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, 03 May. The event
that was held in the Light House Restaurant’s hall in Gaza City was attended by
a large number of journalists, representatives of community-based
organizations, politicians, members of the Palestinian Legislative Council
(PLC) and the Government Information Office, and public figures. The meeting
was facilitated by Ghadeer al-‘Omari, PCHR’s Publications’ Officer.
Dr. Riyadh al-Za’noun, Chairman of PCHR’s
Board of Directors, started the meeting. He praised Palestinian journalists’
courage while covering the daily violations committed by Israeli forces against
civilians and reporting them to the whole world. Dr. al-Za’noun emphasized that
Palestinian journalists have uncovered the real face of the occupation. In
addition, he said that Israel is an apartheid state oppressing the Palestinian
people, denying them their basic rights and imposing an unjust closure over
them.
In conjunction with this occasion, PCHR issued
two reports; the first is about Israeli violations against journalists and
media personnel, “Silencing the Press,” and the second is on the
human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) from 01
January to 31 March 2014. Mr. Hamdi Shaqqura, PCHR’s Deputy Director for Program
Affairs, made a presentation on the two reports. Three focused discussion
sessions were held later as part of the activity as follows:
First: a discussion on the “Reality
of Press Freedoms”, in which Lana Shaheen, a reporter of al-Mayadeen
channel, was hosted and interviewed by Abdul Nasser Abu ‘Oun, an announcer at
al-Quds Radio. Shaheen explained that the press reality in Palestine is not
good due to the internal split and the political restrictions imposed on the media.
She also stressed that the only way to get out of this dilemma is to end the
political split and thus unify the media union.
Second: a discussion on “Defending
Press Freedoms”. Lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, was interviewed by
Samia al-Zubaidi, a journalist at Media Development Center – Bir Zeit
University. Sourani pointed out that there is a strong relationship between
media institutions and personnel on the one hand and human rights organizations
on the other hand and described how their cooperation has contributed to refuting
false Israeli claims about what is going on in the oPt. Sourani added that due
to the efforts exerted in this context, Israel was categorized 2 years ago as
enemy number 1 of journalists on the international level. In the context of
Palestinian violations, Sourani said that PCHR firstly document and publish
such violations, intervene on the legal level and address the competent authorities
if necessary, and intervene on the political level as a third step and meet
with decision-makers. He added that ‘we are able to speak truth to power.’
The third discussion was about
“Governmental Policies towards Press Freedoms”. Ehab al-Ghussain, Director
of the Governmental Information Office – Gaza, was interviewed by Fat’hi
Sabbah, Director of the Palestinian Institute for Communication and Development.
Al-Ghussein highlighted that the government in Gaza adopts policies to protect
press freedoms, as the number of press institutions in Gaza has increased and
more licenses were offered to these institutions. Being asked about preventing
Palestinian newspapers from entering the Gaza Strip due to the split and lately
allowing al-Quds newspaper only after the reconciliation agreement, al-Ghussain
explained this issue is distressing and is basically related to the split. He
added that once newspapers and press institutions are allowed to work freely in
the West Bank, other newspapers will be allowed into the Gaza Strip. Al-Ghussain
indicated also that security officers, who committed violations against
journalists, were punished, but this has not been revealed in public.
