The Information Ministry in the dismissed government in the Gaza Strip issued yesterday press release on response to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) press release, published on 16 August 2009, which dealt with the issue of preventing journalists from covering the events in Rafah city, the statement of the Ministry of Information contained unfounded charges and fallacies.
Although the statement did not mention MADA by name, but it is clear that it meant by this, because it is the only media organization, which issued a press release in this regard, so we would like to clarify of the following:
- The prevention of journalists from the coverage has not been preserved for their safety, as claimed by the statement, this is not the first time that the Hamas government and its security forces had prevented journalists from covering certain events for example, preventing them from media coverage during the events of the Islamic University and the attack on neighborhoods of the Helles and Doghmash clans. The ruling authorities in many countries usually used this argument to prevent journalists from media coverage of certain events, and we recall that the Israeli occupation authorities had prevented journalists from entering the Gaza Strip during the last brutal aggression against the Gaza Strip under the same argument.
- MADA accusation of being silent and ignoring the violations of media freedoms in the West Bank is not the reality, the credibility of MADA is based on its neutrality, professionalism and independence, which everyone knows, especially journalists who have been subjected to attacks, anybody who did not know that can look on MADA website to make sure of that.
- We did not comment on " in distorted way on the events that took place in the Rafah area" or on other way, because that is not our specialty, but we wrote about preventing journalists from covering the events, which was confirmed in the statement of the Ministry of Information and a statement of the Interior Ministry.
The statement included also:
“Ministry of Information and express strong surprise of the exit of the centers in the West Bank - which claims to defend the freedoms of media - from silence to talk about the situation in the Gaza Strip, which does not know and in a manner closer to the political situation and support the blockade and the unprovoked attack and distort the picture"
Here, We wonder what is said in MADA press release and reflects ignorance of what is happening there, isn’t everything true in it !!
The talk about " in a manner closer to the political situation and support the blockade" is a cheap way to accuse us of supporting the blockade, we had demanded and condemned the blockade and demanded to be left time after time , because we believe the siege of our people
in Gaza is a crime against humanity.
The Ministry of Information must work to ensure the right of journalists to freedom of expression, guaranteed in the Palestinian Basic law, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and not charging and targeting centers which defend journalists or human rights, as happened last week, targeting of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights.
Finally, we would like to emphasize that such attacks would not deter and dissuade us from the defense of journalists, and freedom of opinion and expression in the Palestinian territories.
