Ramallah 9-10-2012
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) in cooperation with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed forces (DCAF) on 09 October 2012 held a conference entitled Access to Information in Palestine: Challenges and Prospects at the Best Eastern Hotel in Ramallah.
More than 100 representatives of the Palestinian executive and legislative authorities, civil society, academia and the media participated in the event. They emphasized the need for a Palestinian law on access to information to be enacted in order to grant Palestinian citizens and journalists access to information held by public bodies.
In the opening session, MADA chairman Dr. Ghazi Hanania said: The convening of this conference comes as an important part of our work and our ongoing effort to promote freedom of expression in Palestine, which are closely linked to freedom of access to information, and our work aimed to defend the journalists, who are exposed to continuous attacks.
He added "Adopting an access to information law is one of the main steps to be taken in order to enable citizens to enjoy this right. The importance of such a law goes beyond ensuring the respect of people’s basic rights. It also helps governments engaged in reforming public service with a view to making it more efficient, in line with people's interests and needs. "
Hananiasaid, "Official institutions in the Arab region are still dealing with information as if it was a matter of strict confidentiality. They monopolize information and prevent citizens from accessing it on various pretexts, most of them being related to 'state secrecy’. These institutions sometimes deliberately impose penalties and even prison sentences when information is disclosed or published."
Nicolas Masson, Deputy Head of the DCAF Ramallah office, explained the work performed by DCAF since 2005 in connection with promoting good governance in the security sector. He presented DCAF and MADA’s partnership in training Palestinians journalists on principles of the right to access information and on the structure of the Palestinian Draft Law.
Masson highlighted the importance of journalists’ access to information in order for them to oversee the work of public bodies, including security sector institutions. Masson expressed his hope that the conference be a further step towards adopting a Palestinian law on access to information.
"In the Arab Region, only Jordan has enacted an access to information law, which means more than 250 million Arab citizens and thousands of journalists are deprived of this right,” Masson added.
Mr. Hassan Al-Ori, Adviser to the President of the Palestinian Authority on Legal Affairs, highlighted the key role played by access to information laws in the life of democratic societies. He said that the right to access to information was a crucial component of social and political deveopment.
Al-Ori stressed that it is important to develop mechanisms to ensure citizens’ rights to access information. He added that one of the challenges lies in how information can be provided within the framework of the law.
MADA and DCAF made the following publications available to the participants in the conference:
The Right to Access Information in Palestine. A Research Paper, by Bilal al-Barghouthi and Dr. Ahmed Hammad, MADA, 2011-2012
Palestinian Media and Security: Promoting Palestinian Journalists’ Access to Information through Legislation, DCAF-MADA, 2012
During the conference, speakers made the following presentations:
'The reality of access to information in Palestine’, Bilal Barghouti, Expert in Law 'The role of the Palestinian Legislative Council in enhancing access to information held by security forces’, Said Zaid, Clerk at the PLC Security and Interior Committee
'Access to information legislation and the Palestinian Government’s 2013 legislative plan’, Fawaz Abu Zir, Adviser for Legal Affairs at the Council of Ministers
'Access to information laws: a comparative study’, Mohamad Abu Arqoub. Researcher and Journalist.
'The right to access information rand security sector governance’, Randa Karkar. Director of the Legal Consultation Department at the President’s Office
'Enhancing journalists’ rights in accessing information through legislation’, Fatima Itawi, Projects Officer at DCAF Ramallah.
This conference was conducted with the financial assistance of the Representative Office of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ramallah.
