Gaza, 16/11/2016--- seeking to enhance freedom of expression and the right to access information, Press House held a special meeting between Iyad Al-Bozom, spokesman of the ministry of the interior and a group of media youngsters of both gender in Gaza City.
At the beginning of the meeting, Belal Jadallah, chairman of Press House, welcomed the attendees, confirming that the objective of organizing the meeting is to enhance the role of media youngsters of both gender in communicating the Palestinian officers in order to ask questions and discuss the challenges they face.
Jadallah said that Press House always pays a great attention to the new media youngsters with the various activities and programs implemented by Press House, asking them to seize the opportunity of this meeting to ask questions and discuss their problems freely.
Tens of questions were showered by the new media youngsters to the spokesman, who confirmed that the mission of journalist is not that easy within the reality they are living upon. He also explained that the number of journalists in the Gaza strip is so big, which is considered a big challenge to the ministry of interior.
The number of the journalists of Gaza exceeds the number of journalists in big countries, as the strip is a hot spot, indicating that the government and journalist hold a matual objective which is serving people at the first place.
He noted that the ministry has facing a great challenge divided into several issues, including lack of syndicate body that represents all journalists and is selected by all journalistic institutions. Moreover, they cannot recognize the identity of journalists and the social media that is imposed by rules, as well as the big number of journalists in Gaza.
He said; " There's an increase that on the number of journalists ranged to 80% of the Gaza Strip need, but yet we are seizing this increase in a positive way, in order promote their country and enhance culture and awareness of people."
Al-Bozom asserted that there's no journalist detained in the prisoners of the ministry for a political or public opinion issue, showing that this ministry has a constant attitude for 8 years including giving spaces for media and journalists in the Gaza Strip.
He stressed on the lack of a strategy to gagging, repression& arrest for the ministry, even if there was any call or arrest to some journalists."
Al-Bozom indicated that some journalist was called and arrested for a short time, for creating specific solutions that" is away from media work as he said. He added; " some may present complaints against them, thus they well called or arrested."
He followed; " Sometime there are some breaches" saying; " we solved problems immediately, there's no gagging strategy or preventing freedoms"
He noted that the performance of the media office of the ministry was developed in 2012, explaining the development included facilitation on media outlets and journalists, and for that " we established media relations department" according to him.
He explained that the media relations is a special department that is commissioned to facilitate journalists work to access any place for media coverage."
He noted that there's static of his ministry that proves 2000 facilitation processes inside the offices and facilities of the ministry of the interior like borders and prisons.
Al-Bozom said that the ministry of interior plays a role of communication and connection due to the prickly relation between policemen and journalists during media coverage.
He also said; " we were a link between the security and media offices in order to overcome any problem or challenge we face and to create a kind of cooperation and partnership in this issue."
He noted that when there's any problem, or any journalist commits encroachment regarding personal or criminal issue, it becomes a must that the ministry interferes to protect the society.
Al-Bozom expressed his readiness to receive any complaint regarding encroachment by the ministry so that they could immediately follow it up, showing that it happened to many journalists, where investigation committees was formed for justice.
He explained that the ministry of interior has been subjected to difficult situations, which are the same of the all Palestinians'.
Al-Bozom also showed that the security condition is stable and recognized by all levels including ministries, delegations, and ambassadors that visit the Gaza Strip, noting that the ministry could successfully perform security rules by great efforts devoted by them.
He assured that the ministry will never allow any family, faction, or a security service to ruin the security condition in the Gaza Strip, pointing out that a defect happened, the ministry will not allow it to be exceed.
Al-Bozom noted that 22 factions and tens of thousands people having weapons, but this weapon is used in resistance.
He added; " We have agreements with all factions, we could make a basis of cooperation that these weapons will not be used during the internal Palestinian situation.
Al-Bozom stated that his ministry depends on many methods to fight rumors and decrease them, explaining that the first step is to present information to all media outlets and people in order to stop the rumors' promoters. He also asserted that his ministry has created many accounts on social media means to vitrify the accuracy of information.
He followed; " There's another issue in this context, that some people spread rumors on their own pages for personal issues, causing detriment for the society." He stressed on the importance of holding the responsibility.
He stated;" we held a workshop one month ago about rumors and took decisions about these attitudes, noting that they are might be compelled to close some websites and media institutions for spreading rumors, they have been warned many times before though.
He confirmed that publishing news by some media outlets without independent resource is also a challenge, asking them to be more responsible and accurate in publishing news"
Regarding their plans within the Israeli escalations, the spokesman of the ministry said ; " we have an emergency plan upon the escalation, and we are warning to promote the news that talk about evacuation of the ministry offices." He noted that such news like these give a space to the occupation to shell them and stress people as well.
He stated that the Gaza strip has reached the highest number of freedoms among other Arab countries, confirming that " when any journalist is detained, his ministry immediately tries to solve the problem. This happens to us repeatedly .
He indicated that some complaints presented to the Public prosecution against the artisit Baha Yasine, where the procedures of this issue are going on till this moment" following; " when there's an order of calling up or arrest, we in our turn as a ministry of interior call them up, and we don't accept any violence towards any Palestinians.
Al-Bozom dicussed the investigative reports, saying that they made success for the kind of topics promoted in them. He said that the role of journalist is to highlight the problem to be solved.They don't have any problems with them, stressing that his ministry considers the investigative reports as the core of the journalistic work, where they have to detect the issue, and the ministry has to solve it.
In the same context, he added;" we live in an environment, where there are many enemies, but yet a limited number of journalists deal with issues of Gaza, where in advance people focus on it leading to hurting the reputation of the society.
Regarding Employment; he said that employment in the ministry of the interior has been stopped for 6 years, but now we have a gap in some aspects, thus we have announced our limited need for 500 members, showing that it's a very limited number in comparison with the long period since the last announcement.
In the context of Methqal Al-Salmy death, Al-Bozom commented that the police rushed to the location of the crime to collect evidences and witnesses, that may lead to the truth, indicating that they will continue investigation process to detect the real criminals and present them to justice. 
