Ref: 25/2007

Date: 30 April  2007

PCHR Organizes “Conference on Media and Human Rights”

On 3 May 2007, which marks the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, PCHR will organize a conference titled “Media and Human Rights.”

The conference seeks to support press freedoms, journalists and media institutions in Palestine; discuss mechanism of protection for journalists and media institutions; focus attacks on journalists and media institutions; highlight the interrelation between the media and human rights; and address the role of the media in the promotion of the culture of human rights and the role of human rights organizations in defending press freedoms.

At least 200 persons have been invited to participate in the conference, including: media specialists; academics; representatives of the civil society and political factions; members of the Palestinian Legislative Council; and official and public figures. The conference will be held in the lobby of Roots Restaurant.

Holding the conference coincides with an escalation in attacks against journalists and media institutions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The latest of such attacks has targeted BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who has been abducted in Gaza since 12 March 2007, and whose destiny is still unknown. The conference will serve as an occasion to express solidarity with Johnston and support for efforts to release him.

The conference agenda focuses on two main issues:

1)      Mechanisms of protection and defense for journalists and media institutions; and

2)      The role of the media in the prevalence of human rights culture.

These two issues will be addressed in two specialized sessions, in which specialists and experts will submit relevant interventions and working papers.