Ramallah - (29/5/2019) - The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the pursuit of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper in the Gaza Strip on the pretext of publishing incitement material that provokes violence, hatred and sedition and calls for attacks on public and private property, which leads to damage the community peace and stir sectarian strife, as stated in the complaint filed by the "Ministries of Interior and Information" in the Magistrate Court in Gaza Strip.
It is interesting to note that the petition requested the Attorney General to prevent the entry of "Al-Hayat Al-Jadida" newspaper into the Gaza Strip, "in the presence of one team" as stated in the text of the petition, which is in anticipation of what will happen. As the director-general of the newspaper, Majid al-Rimawi, who is based in Ramallah, will not attend the court session scheduled for June 10 to be tried in Gaza, knowing that the newspaper's headquarters based in Ramallah.
According to MADA researcher, the newspaper received a letter from the Attorney General in Gaza Dia’ al-Din al-Madhoun, at its headquarters in Al-Rimal neighborhood / Al-Shorouq tower/ 9th Floor, last Sunday morning (26/5/2019), recommends that the Magistrate Court in Gaza issuing a decision “in the presence of one team to prevent the entering of Al-Hayat newspaper into the Gaza Strip”
The office of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper in Gaza received another letter from the court, number 450/2019, ordering the presence of the Director-General of the newspaper Majed al-Rimawi, resident in Ramallah, to the court in Gaza on 10/6/2019, to be tried for "the charge of disrupting the issuance of publications issued by Al-Hayat newspaper and its entering into the Gaza Strip" as stated in the letter.
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA), considering that the demand to prevent the introduction of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper into the Gaza Strip constitutes a severe violation of the freedom of the press cannot be justified, and demands a halt to the prosecution.
