Ramallah - 04/07/2011: The coalition to defend freedom of expression met the Director of Government Media Center, to discuss ways of joint cooperation to halt violations of freedom of opinion and expression, as well as talk about the laws organizing media work in Palestine. The meeting took place at the headquarters of the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA).

At the beginning of the meeting, the coalition’s members talked about ​​establishment of the coalition and its goals, stressing that the two main goals of the coalition are to influence public policies regarding freedom of opinion and expression, particularly freedom of Media, and enhance a culture of freedom of opinion and expression in Palestinian society.

The members also talked about their concerns about the violations against freedom of expression, and about the media laws. They stressed that the Israeli violations against journalists are the more and most dangerous, but the Palestinian side also commit a lot of violations, and this is what they must work to reduce them as much as possible.

They confirmed that halting violations against journalists requires continuous efforts of civil society organization and the PGMC, and they proposed to develop an integrated program in order to enhance freedom of expression in Palestine.

After listening to different views of the coalition’s members, the director of PGMC Dr. Ghassan Al-khateeb suggested to follow-up all journalists’ cases between the coalition and the PGMC. He said "accountability for any violations requires intensive follow-up per-case, and we are ready to help at any moment."

Khatib pointed out that the new draft law that currently located at the Council of Ministers for discussion prior to submission to the President for approval, gives a wide range of freedom of opinion and expression."