Ramallah – 15th April 2014: Yesterday at the American Arab University in Jenin, media students and MADA’s team celebrated the end of the 1st workshop on freedom of expression and media laws; it was conducted by MADA as part of its new project “A turning point in defending freedom of expression through a healthy legal environment”, which is funded by the EU. During which Mr. Mousa Rimawi the general director of MADA addressed the students on the importance of the involvement of media students and journalists, as well as all other segments of Palestinian society in the efforts to enhance freedom of expression, especially with all tools that social media has provided for us to express our views.
Mr. Rimawi talked about the enormous violations that are committed against journalists in Palestine, especially by the Israeli occupation who committed 151 violations in 2013 alone. The Palestinian different parties committed 78 violations against their fellow Palestinian journalists.He also expressed his thanks to the Arab American University and faculty of the Arabic language and media Department for their unlimited cooperation that lead to the success of the workshop.
Dr. Hazem Sawalha the dean of the Arts and Sciences College talked about the importance of such workshops that enriches the knowledge of media students. He also stressed on the importance of cooperation with MADA in this area, because such workshops will have a positive impact on the career of media students in the near future.
The workshop was attended by 34 media student, and it aimed to raise awareness among the students on topics related to the concept of freedom of opinion and expression and the reality of it in Palestine as well as the negative effects of media freedoms violations on the media and the community development. On the first day they discussed the boundaries between freedom of opinion and expression, slander, libel and defamation. And on the second day was dedicated to review the media laws and to comparing local laws with the international standards for freedom of opinion and expression. The students also explored the Palestinian court procedures and ways of self-protection for journalists, and they also learned about access to information and how to cover court cases.
The students who participated in the workshop expressed their gratitude to MADA for organizing it, which they benefited from so much, and certificates of workshop completion were distributed to the participants at the end in the presence of Dr. Imad Abu El Hassan, Dr. Mahmoud Makhlouf, journalist Atef Abu Al-Rab from the Journalists' Syndicate, and MADA’s project coordinator Bassam Awartani.
