Ramallah- 21 February 2012: The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) released a new study analyzing Palestinian media’s role in fuelling the internal division between Fatah and Hamas. The study was conducted with the support of the UNESCO office in Ramallah.
The study was prepared by journalist and researcher Muntaser Hamdan under the supervision of Dr. Iyad Barghouti, and focused on Palestine Public TV and Aqsa TV as models for wider media trends.
The study includes four chapters: the first concerning previous studies that covered this issue, the second about Palestinian media reality and professionalism in covering the internal division, the third discusses Palestine Public TV and Aqsa TV coverage of the division and the ways in which fuel the division, and its negative effects on press freedoms; and concludes with an analyses of the findings and sets out a series of recommendations such as the importance of encouraging the independent and professional media in Palestine, and the need for formation of the media higher council in the near future .
The most substantial finding of the study was that local media coverage of the internal division was severely biased, with researchers studying samples of Palestine and Aqsa TV’s programs and identifying a series of terminologies used by the two channels to incite and tarnish each other’s image.
This is the sixth study issued by MADA center about Palestinian media performance and trends.
