Press House organizes a round table discussion on the topic of “Legal Draft on the Right to Access Information”

Gaza – Press House

On Thursday, May 6, 2021, Press House – Palestine (BAS) organized A round table discussion on the topic of “Legal Draft on the Right to Access the Information” on the side line of World Press Freedom Day as part of “Journalists Have Power” project activities in partnership with the French Consulate in Jerusalem.

With high prevention measures to prevent the outbreak of Covid-19, the session was held in Gaza city with the attendance of Journalists (men and women) and media graduates.

Mr. Abdullah Sharshra, Coordinator of the Legal Protection Unit for Journalists at Press House, opened the round table discussion reviewing the important provisions of the legal draft related to the right to access information and its relationship with promoting media freedoms, freedom of opinion and expression, and the importance of its endorsement by the Legislative Council.

From his part, Mr. Mohammed Al-Jeish explained the mechanisms of disclosing information from official authorities in accordance with the legal draft on the right to access information, the criteria of rejecting requests related to accessing information and the legal duration permitted by law to the competent authorities to respond on requests to access information.

The round table included many participations and recommendations from participants; most of them focused on the necessity of obligating the law to the official and non-official entities to provide information for media in addition to the necessity of updating its formula in proportion with current developments, as its formula was put before 2006.

The most prominent participations focused on adopting the legal draft and issue the law, the importance of amending some provisions of the law that allow the competent authorities to extend the period of response to requests for accessing information which supports and takes into account some characteristics of media materials that need quick official responses, and promoting the judiciary monitoring on the control of implementing the law.