Press House holds an Awareness Session on the topic of “Legal Photography Standards in the Public & Private Places during Armed Conflicts”

Gaza – Press House

On Sunday, May 30, 2021, Press House- Palestine (BAS) held a legal awareness session on the topic of “Legal Photography Standards in the Public & Private places during Armed Conflicts,” as part of “Legal Protection for the Palestinian Journalists” project activities in partnership with European Endowment for Democracy.

With consideration of high prevention measures to prevent the outbreak of COVID 19, the session was held in Gaza city and attended by a number of Journalists (men &women) and media graduates in the Gaza Strip.

Ms. Aya Almoghrabi, Lawyer, opened the session pointing out the importance of holding such legal awareness sessions after the aggression on the Gaza Strip, especially these sessions focusing on the legal photography standards during armed conflicts and moral standards controlling the process of taking and publishing photos on media.

From her Side, Ms. Fatima Ashour, Lawyer and Session Facilitator, presented the points of the session defining the law that protects Journalists covering armed conflicts news. She also talked about the bases of international humanitarian law that Journalists should follow while covering armed conflicts.

Ms. Ashour also stressed the importance of Journalists' commitment to the procedures while covering armed conflicts and some of these occupational safety procedures are: using safety equipment holding press sign, keeping their personal cards and journalistic cards in addition to using vehicles holding special journalistic sign while covering targeted places.

The session also focused on restrictions imposed on Journalists during armed conflicts and in case they didn’t follow these restrictions, the Journalist could lose his independence and protection as a civilian according to Fourth Geneva Convention 1948. The session included many participations from Journalists (women & men); most of them focused on media coverage during armed conflicts for providing legal and personal protection for Journalists.