Ref:
17/2015

On
World Press Freedom Day, Saturday, 02 May 2015, the Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights (PCHR) launched a media campaign titled as “the Press
Day” on the social media websites in both Arabic and English.  PCHR was able to gather all journalists,
bloggers and activists under its umbrella to tweet about the freedom of press
and not muzzling them for two hours from 13:00-15:00 in Lighthouse Restaurant’s
hall in Gaza.

During
the campaign activities, which will end on Monday, 04 May 2015, users of social
media have interacted and turned their pages on “Twitter” into
platforms to expose the Israeli and Palestinian flagrant violations against
journalists and call for respect their rights and freedoms guaranteed by all
international instruments.

Tweeters
did not only publish tweets, numbers or statistics but also employed the visual
element to ensure success of the campaign and break the routine.  Tweeters posted videos and pictures taken
from journalists’ daily lives as Israel killed 6 journalists in cold blood during
the latest Israeli offensive on Gaza. 
Moreover, they shed the light on the Palestinian Authority’s suppression
in the West Bank and Gaza against of the Palestinian media body. 

It
should be mentioned that the tweeters relied on two special reports published
by PCHR on the press freedom titled as” Silencing the Press” and
“the Freedom of Opinion and Expression”.  In both reports, PCHR documented throughout a
whole year the Israeli and Palestinian violations against journalists.  In addition, PCHR concluded a number of
recommendations to avoid undermining the press freedom.

In
the same context, Mohammed Abu Hashem, the campaign coordinator, said: “Launching
a media campaign to promote the freedoms and rights of journalists is
considered as a precedent for the organizations concerned with disseminating
the culture of human rights.  This
campaign, which is considered as the first fruit of PCHR’s media advocacy on
the social media, will establish a very strong base for networking with
bloggers and journalists active on cyberspace.”  Abu Hashim added: “Since PCHR believes
that exposing the violations is considered one of the most important means to
stop them, PCHR decided to use the alternative media in order to reach more
audience not only locally but internationally as well.”

It
should be mentioned that the number of tweets posted within the PCHR’s campaign
for two hours resulted in a qualitative leap in the nature of activists’
interaction with the two hashtags launched by PCHR “#Press Day” and
“#“يوم الصحافة.  Around 99,000 tweets in
both languages reached Twitter users within three million tweets on the freedom
of press around the world.