Ramallah-7.26.2013- The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) expresses its strong condemnation to the closing of the offices of Ma'an Agency and Alarabia TV and the Lents Company for media production, as MADA considers this a unwarranted flagrant violation of freedom of expression. MADA demands the respect of freedom of expression, which is guaranteed in Article 19 of the Palestinian Basic, and to reopen the offices closed where employees are able to work freely.
The Ma'an News Agency has stated that the Attorney-General Counsel Ismail Jabr had issued an order on Thursday 25th July 2013, to close the offices of Ma'an and Alarabia TV in Gaza, on a temporary basis. The reason was “fabricating News, spreading rumors, and transmitting false information that is not reality of truth, which threatens civil peace and harms the Palestinian people and its resistance”. After Ma’an News Agency had published a translated news story from an Israeli news site on the escape of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, later a statement by the Hamas Information Office was published "the Ministry of Information questioned Ma’an Agency office director in Gaza regarding the false news published by the agency about the escape of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders from Egypt to the Gaza Strip and their stay in a hotel in Gaza, referenced to an anonymous Israeli sources”.
The same office issued a statement early yesterday accusing some local and Arab media of publishing false, fabricated, and distorted news and reports, and that this is a campaign involving some Egyptian media known for its loyalty and relationship with the Israeli occupation, and mentioned in particular Ma’an Agency and Alarabia TV, which he described intentionally avoiding integrity, credibility and leaving behind the professional commitment to journalism ethics”.
The closer of Lents Company was for its work relationship with the Israeli news channel 124NEWS, according to an earlier decision of Hamas government which prohibits working with Israeli media.
MADA reaffirms the need to respect freedom of expression in Palestine, and to enable journalists and media outlets from performing their professional duty freely and away from the harassment and obstruction.
