8 July 2010
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) denounce the dismissed government in Gaza prevention of the three daily newspapers (Al-Hayat Aljadedeh, Al-Ayyam and Al-Quds) to enter Gaza Strip for a second day in a row, and considers this as a flagrant violation of freedom of opinion and expression. 
The Israeli occupation authorities have allowed the three daily newspapers to enter Gaza Strip before yesterday evening, after banning them from entering there since late 2008. 
The chairman of Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and editorial director of Al-Ayyam newspaper Abdel Nasser Alnajar emphasized his condemnation of the newspaper prevention to enter Gaza Strip, and demanded the authorities in the West Bank and Gaza to keep media institutions away from the political division between Fatah and Hamas. Alnajar said: "We categorically
reject to force the newspaper’s officials to sign a document which ensures that the newspapers will not criticize Hamas and the situation in the Gaza Strip in order to allow them to enter Gaza. Hamas had unofficially asked the officials of the newspapers to sign on that, and when we try to contact Hamas’s officials they refused to talk or to comment on that, and so far we do not get any official information from them. "
Palestinian sources said that the authorities in Gaza require the owners of the daily newspapers which published in the West Bank, to sign a pledge not to criticize Hamas’s government harshly, and to allow Felesteen and Al-Risalah newspapers to be printed and distributed in the West Bank, where they were denied that since the mid-June 2007. 
The chief editor of Al-Hayat newspaper Hafez Barghouti said that they didn’t send any copy{of the news paper} to Gaza today, because Hamas prevented the newspaper’s copies to enter Gaza yesterday. Barghouti added:“We still waiting the response from Hamas, if it is positive, we will send copies to Gaza tomorrow". 
On another hand, Al-Quds newspaper distributor in the Gaza Strip Shukri Shiblak said that members of the internal security apparatus of the government in Gaza did not allow the distributors to receive the newspapers yesterday, as they asked for a formal decision from the Information Ministry, which allows the newspaper to enter Gaza. He added that they are waiting for Ministry of Information approval.
MADA demands Hamas government to allow the newspaper to enter Gaza strip without restrictions, and renewed its demand for the relevant authorities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to allow all media and journalists to work freely and safely. 
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Contact: 
Riham Abu Aita
Public Relation Officer
Ramallah
riham@madacenter.org
www.madacenter.org
00970 2 2976519