Ramallah- 27 November 2012: The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) welcomes the decision of the Vienna meeting held last week at the invitation of UNESCO, in which the application of a UN strategy to create a secure environment for the work of journalists and fight impunity exercised by aggressors against journalists was admitted.

MADA is demanding that Palestine be included among the list of countries where the plan will be implemented , which already encompasses Iraq, Pakistan, Nepal and South Sudan in addition to Latin America.

Palestine experiences some of the highest occurrences of violations to media freedoms, and MADA has monitored 930 such violations over the past four years. Three journalists were killed and several local, Arab and international media outlet headquarters were bombed during the most recent Israeli aggression on Gaza. A total of 23 journalists have been killed by the occupation forces in both the West Bank and Gaza since the beginning of the new millennium.

MADA also expresses gratitude to Hedayat Abdel Nabi, President of the Foundation of the Pres Emblem Campaign (PEC), on her position during the meeting. She discussed the suffering of journalists in the occupied Palestinian territories and demanded the inclusion of Palestine and Syria in the plan’s list of countries for implementation.

We highly appreciate the role of UNESCO in promoting freedom of expression around the world, and we recognize the difficult financial situation under which it now operates subsequent to the withdrawal of aid from the U.S. upon the admission to UNESCO of Palestine. Therefore, we appeal to Arab countries to increase their contribution to the UNESCO budget in order to bolster its power in achieving its mission.

The Vienna meeting was called by UNESCO and was attended by representatives from 15 bodies of the United Nations, including Frank La Rue, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression at the UN, as well as many civil society institutions.