29/9- Today the World celebrates the International Right to Know Day in the twenty-eighth of September every year, given the importance of this right closely linked to free access to information, it became common to say in our time that "Who owns the information has the power," addition to right and accurancy of it , it carries within it an explanation of the motives behind the efforts of different countries and authorities to withhold information, and to prevent access to it by people under different justifications.
Proceeding from the conviction of the importance of this right Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms " MADA " has worked in order to promote this right in Palestine, whether through hard work to defend freedom of expression and the media, or through media studies issued by it including the legal regulation of media freedom in Palestine, and the right to access to information and its reality in Palestine, which has been translated to English language and reprinted recently in the framework of joint cooperation between the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) and the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control overArmed Forces (DCAF). This cooperation aims to promote the right of citizens and Palestinian media to access information held by public bodies, including the security sector institutions. the study will be displayed in addition to a working paper published by the two centers in this regard during the national conference to be held on the ninth of October .
That access to information which is a basic human right still absent from placed within legislation, or in the legal framework, protects and provides and regulates this right in Palestine. Not least the status and importance of this right was approved in 1946 the General Assembly of the United Nations before issuing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which its Article No. 19 guarantees freedom of expression.
Not only is this important right meet the needs of individuals and journalists only, but that it is a basic need for governments and regimes wishing to devote reform and make the work more efficient and an expression of the people's interests and needs.
We at MADA will work in cooperation with our friends and partners, especially with Coalition to Defend Freedom of Expression in Palestine, and the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control over Armed Forces (DCAF), and relevant United Nations organizations, to promote this right and to be issued in a law, which allows the media and citizens access to information readily and easily and at the lowest possible cost.
Today we call on all public bodies to facilitate the arrival of journalists to information which will contribute to the development of professional performance of Palestinian Media, and provides information for citizens to enable them to participate effectively in public life.
