Ramallah, 8/9/2014: The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) wrapped up in Jenin on Monday a two-day training workshop for journalists on the subject of freedom of expression and media legislations.

On the first day, the trainer Mohammad Abu Arqoub presented international and national concepts of freedom of expression and its status in Palestine, as well as the negative impacts of the violations against freedom of expression on the media and society. Arqoub gave an overview of the Palestinian laws related to the media. He explained the actions regarded as crimes in the Jordanian penal law, i.e. defamation, slander, libel, and the differences between them.

The workshop included practical trainings where participants were asked to analyze texts and say if they respected the law or included elements of defamation, slander or libel. The trainer spoke about the court judgments on these issues.

On the second day, media and legal researcher Majed Saleh presented media laws, legal protection for journalists and privacy rules. He explained the work of the judiciary and the rules of media coverage of judiciary news. He also introduced the draft Access to Information law and discussed it with the participants.

At the end of the training, certificates were handed to all participants. This course was organized in the framework of the project “Defending freedom of expression and opinion through a healthy legal environment” funded by the European Union. MADA started implementing this project at the beginning of the current year. Similar training courses for journalists will be held in different cities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.