MADA – Ramallah, 30/10/2014: The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedom (MADA) launched a new campaign on social media to limit self-censorship among journalists.
MADA’s General Director Mousa Rimawi explained that the campaign aims to encourage journalists to get rid of self-censorship, or at least to limit it, adding that it is the most dangerous kind of media censorship.
The campaign is part of MADA’s efforts to enhance freedom of expression within the Palestinian society and strengthen the professional capabilities of Palestinian journalists despite the difficult conditions in which they exercise their work in their state and its capital east jerusalem.
Rimawi stressed out that in addition to official and societal factors, journalists’ self-censorship is caused by media violations, which have increased in the aftermath of the 2007 Palestinian division. For example, in the first half of 2014 only, MADA monitored 186 media violations (54 committed by Palestinian sides and 132 by Israeli sides).
He pointed out that these attacks against media freedoms should not trigger more self-censorship on journalistic work, especially that the Palestinian Basic Law and international charts guarantee the right of freedom of expression to everyone. He emphasized that limiting self-censorship among journalists requires the support of all organizations. In this sense, MADA established in 2010 a Legal Unit to protect journalists and provide them with free legal consultancy, in addition to holding training to improve their knowledge of the legal issues related to their profession.
A study entitled “The official Palestinian media and freedom of expression” recently published by MADA and written by the journalist and researcher Ghazi Bani Odeh revealed that 80% of the surveyed journalists practice self-censorship on some or all of their productions, while only 19% said they do not practice any kind of censorship on their work. According to the same study, 68% of journalists declared that some of their journalistic materials and those of their colleagues’ were banned from publishing many times.
A previous MADA study prepared by the journalist and researcher Mahmoud Fatafta entitled “The impact of media violations on self-censorship among Palestinian journalists”, stressed on the importance that journalists dare breaking self-censorship.
MADA held two public meetings in Gaza and Ramallah during this month on the subject of self-censorship, in which dozens of journalists talked about their personal experiences of self-censorship, the reasons of such a phenomenon as well as its negative impact on the quality of journalistic material. They explained that the spread of self-censorship is not only related to official institutions but also to the fear that the society, publishers or other sides censor their work and prevent them from mentioning certain subjects.
They emphasized the need to address the problem by enhancing their professionalism and investigative capabilities. They also stressed on the necessity of reforming the legal environment so that journalists are protected from prosecution on the background of their professional work, in addition to including the subject of (self)-censorship in Journalism Studies at university, and finding strategies that will help improving the status of the Palestinian media in general.
This campaign is organized in the framework of a project funded by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and aimed at promoting freedom of expression and defending journalists’ rights in Palestine.
