For the First Time, Press House Organizes an Alive meeting about the reality of Media Freedoms in West BankGaza, 5/10/2015--- seeking to boost freedom of expression and the right to access information from an independent source, Press House- Palestine organized Face the Press meeting via Raya FM broadcasting in Ramallah about the reality of freedoms.
The meeting, organized in Raya Broadcasting studios in Ramallah was attended by the spokesman of the security services of the West Bank, while the journalists Amer Abu-Arafa- Shehab Agency- , and Ali Daraghma- Watan News Agency- the journalist Sokon Shaban from Jenin and Farid Al-Atrash- the representative of the Independent Commission for Human Rights.
The major general Adnan Al-Dameery, the official spokesman of the security services, said that theres a well-built control process from multiple official entities, which concern about respecting humans rights of journalists. Al-Dameery added," if there is any violation occurs against one of the journalist, it is considered to be an individual mistake or behavior where the authority has no hand in.
He pointed out that there no official control on the Palestinian Media by the authority, saying " we have a problem in recognizing journalists, in addition to the journalists problem of being unable to differentiate among" Contempt , Insult, and freedom of expression".
He asserted that freedom of expression is guaranteed for all. He called on all human right bodies to check out all the complaints they receive, especially if the resource of this complaint was politicized or partisan.
He also said," as a result of the Palestinian division, some of those push their folks to make a touch with the security men, indicating that this is a crime should be counted by law.
In a telephone intervention of Farid Al-Atrash, he said, " there are many journalists complaints delivered this year including calling, torturing, and detaining", pointing out that the annual report hasnt been done yet.
He explained that some journalists and activists have been investigated with and detained for some posts they wrote on the social media sites, asserting that there are 65 violations recorded from the beginning of the current year in Gaza and West Bank.
He added ,"64 journalists were violated, 26 of them were violated by the authority and 38 by Gaza Police" Some journalists narrate their stories of the violations done against them on a phone call by the security men where there were no investigation committees, even if they were never published. The journalist Amer Arafa was of those who narrated his story.
He was detained at the middle of the last month after a post published on his personal account. According to Arafa story, the preventive security officers confiscated his laptop and cameras and detain him for 5 days, saying " during this time, they investigated me for 1 hour just for a post I wrote on my personal page. Al-Dameery answered back and said" There are many journalists mentioning their political opinion at work, which is not supposed to do at all.
He added," they can head my office to access any information, we would guarantee them their rights".
He emphasized that each one violated journalists will be punished, saying " 30 policemen were punished for breaking rules while others were punished for not respecting the opinions of the public.
Ali Daraghma, the editorial director of Watan News, said" During my reading to a report spotted the violations done against the West Bank journalists, I noticed that most of them are Persian agencies, and one spotted for a cameraman working for the Chinese agency.
Darghma questioning Aldameery, " Why does nobody say anything after getting out from Beit- Lahem prison? They dont talk about anything happened with them, but they all said that there was a butcher shop! " He wondered then, " It is fair to treat journalists that way? Even its by the opposition party?! He went on saying, " Dont you fear publishing these violations to the international community, especially because the authority signed many conventions related to that.
Aldameery replied to his sentence," Its not good to call Beit Lahem prison as a butcher shop, stressing that everybody should have a look at the investigations before judging" He stressed that the authority has nothing to fear punishing violations committers against journalists, saying" Everyone commits any crime, should be punished in accordance to the relevant laws" In her return, the journalist Sokoun Sahban from Jenin city, " There is a difficulty in accessing the information, adding the security services refused to talk about a topic they wanted to prepare about the criminal internees and others.
At the end of series, he asked the journalists to be be more subjective in delivering news and be away from the topics that worsen the Political division, wishing a real cooperation between the human rights organizations and the authority to ensure freedom of expression and journalists.
The journalists stressed on the importance of showing respect to them and affording protection coverage during their work in the field. For listening to Face the Press Meeting, click here
