Ramallah – 26th May 2013: a delegation from the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) meet with the Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad this afternoon, and his advisor Mr. Jamal Zaqoot, in his office in Ramallah today, as part of MADA’s efforts to pass the Access to Information Law.
The delegation included: Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr. Ghazi Hanania, the center’s general director Mousa Rimawi, and the Public relations officer Riham Abu Aita. Where they presented MADA’s work in the field of media development and freedoms, improving the legal environment for media especially its work on drafting a new Access to Information law, which the delegation demanded its inclusion on the legislative plan for this year.
For his part, Dr. Fayyad on the importance of media freedoms and access to information, and promised to follow up on the draft law with the Secretariat, and work for its inclusion on the legislative plan, which he considered to be very important, and thanked the center for its efforts, which he described as great efforts in this field.
MADA has submited a new draft for the Access to Information law late last year for the Legal Department of the Council of Ministers to be included on the legislative plan for 2013. The new law was drafted by a committee of experts in mid-October 2012 which consisted of Dr. Ahmed Hammad, Prof. Bilal Barghouti, Prof. Majid Aruri, Prof. Mohammed Abu Arqoub, and under the supervision of the General Director of MADA Mousa Rimawi.
The Committee based its work on what has been accomplished in this area, and in particular the draft law prepared by the Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights, and presented to the Legislative Council in 2005,the amendments by AMAN Foundation, a study by MADA, and a comparative study by Internews, in addition to the proposed amendments by journalists who participated in the workshops, and the recommendations by the participants in the two conferences devoted to this purpose, in addition to the valued observations by the international expert Prof. Bertil Couter.
