Press House organizes a dialogue session on the topic of “Role of Journalists in Preparing Positive Atmosphere for General Elections Success” in partnership with Central Elections Commission south of Gaza strip

Rafah – Press House

On Tuesday, February 2, 2021, Press House (BAS) organized a dialogue session on the topic of “Role of Journalists in Preparing Positive Atmosphere for General Elections Success” as part of “Strengthening free and independent media in Palestine” projects activities funded by the Norwegian and the Swiss Governments.

With consideration of high preventive measures to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19, the session was held in Rafah south of the Gaza Strip for a group of journalists and media professionals with the attendance of Mr. Mohammed Shaheen Head of Rafah office for the Central Elections Commission, Dr. Tahseen Al-Asttal, Deputy Head of Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, lawyer Abdullah Sharshra, coordinator of the Legal Protection Unit for Journalists at Press House, Mr. Nader Al-Qaseer a journalist in Alhaya newspaper and Mr. Hatem abo-Taha participated in the session.

Hatem Abu-Taha, the facilitator of the session, opened the session thanking Press House for holding such sessions in Rafah to raise journalists’ awareness (women and men) about their legal rights and responsibilities during the elections.

Dr. Tahseen Al-Asttal said “the Palestinian media role at the stage of election must focus on enhancing the national unity, creating a positive atmosphere, monitoring the elections process and supporting the political pluralism by avoiding the hate media speech.” He also emphasized that the syndicate will facilitate the journalists’ work (women and men) during the elections process by cooperating with the Central Elections Commission and update the journalistic honour charter.

From his part, Mr. Mohammed Shaheen urged journalists to register through the Central Elections Commission website to facilitate the coverage during the elections process. He added that the Commission will hold many awareness sessions for citizens about the Elections’ process praising the high registration rate in Rafah.

Mr. Abdullah Sharhra said “the legal system in Palestine should be amended to allow journalists (women and men) to play their roles in monitoring and assessing the performance of the electoral system emphasizing that the current laws do not allow journalists to do their work. He pointed out that Press House recently established a legal protection unit to enhance media freedom and monitor the violations by protecting the rights of journalists (women and men) and raising their legal awareness through holding specialized legal workshops and training courses.

After talking about his experience in covering the previous elections in 2006, Mr. Nader Al-Qaseer said “many journalists did not participate in covering the last elections, so they need awareness courses in the basics of election media coverage.” Moreover, he called journalists (women and men) to focus on enhancing the spirit of familiarity, brotherhood and unity.

The session included many participations from journalists (men and women); most of them focused on the role of journalists during the electoral process and the main obstacles they may face.