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Palestinian Media Forum kicks off

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Hundreds of journalists have gathered in Istanbul this week to participate in the second Palestine Media Forum to discuss the media’s role in reporting on the Palestinian issue. The conference is being held over a two day period which marks the 100 year anniversary since the Sykes-Picot agreement also known as the Asia Minor agreement that divided up the Middle East following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

The agreement resulted in Palestine being handed over to the British and later handed over to a new government that created the state of Israel in 1948.

The opening ceremony got off to a powerful start with journalists from Egypt, Japan and the Minister of Communications from Morocco speaking about why it is important to continue to report on the Palestinian issue, which highlights the struggle faced by those in Palestine and in the Diaspora, who continue to fight for the right to return to their homeland.

“Many Palestinian journalists are also being honoured at the opening ceremony to emphasize their hard work in informing people on the true nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” reported VOC journalist Umarah Hartley, who is attending the conference.

“One of them is well known South African media commentator Iqbal Jassat from the Media Review Network for his contribution to Palestine within the media space.”

The first panel session gets underway

Since 1996, Jassat – through MRN – has been bravely writing about Palestine, the intifada and the resistance at a time when these were dirty words in a South African media landscape largely still controlled by apologists for Apartheid South Africa, and aligned to the Israeli regime. 

The opening session will delve into unveiling Zionist myths, which will be followed by workshops in which journalists can participate in to fully understand how to report on issues concerning Palestine.

The MRN’s Dr Firoz Osman chats to the President of the African Media Initiative, Eric Chinje on Palestine in the media

Amongst the speakers and delegates are Palestinian academic Ramzy Baroud; Arab thinker Munir Shafiq; Anas al Tikriti, the chairman of the Cordoba Foundation and political analyst Abdullah Abu Awad.

Ariene Clemensha presenting Brazil and Palestine in Thursday’s digital Palestine panel discussion

The forum’s speakers have said that social media has played an important role in getting live reports out to the masses in the shortest amount of time so that the world can be exposed to human rights violations that are not only occurring in Palestine, but around the world as well.

A delegation of South African journalists and activists from Radio Islam, Salaamedia and the Media Review Network are in attendance.

VOC (Umarah Hartley)

 

 


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5 comments

  1. *THIS IS THE START* to countering Zionist Israel’s brutality and the conspiracy of major nations such as our *USA* and *ENGLAND* who are equally guilty of the genocide happening in Palestine!

  2. kudus to iqbal jassat firoz osman mrn et al for your consistent palestinian writings and activism…..
    but the palestinian issue has been intensely on the south african radar since especially 1979……before then the majority of our ulema were in denial etc
    theres no doubt that achmad cassiem of qibla movemet especially after imam khomeini r.a declared the last friday of ramadhaan to be international quds day was mostly responsible making muslims in south africa aware of the palestinian issue
    most of the ulema even from within the mjc only started waking up after 1990
    before 1994 most of them told the people not to participate in quds day but over the years even folk misled by them started to come
    then after 1994 they too started to show a willingness to participate but slowly because of their problem with the "shia" theyve increasingly started to have their own programs
    unfortunately they were real politicians going for popularity siding with the plo pa of yassar arafat and abbas
    and to sideline hamas …. for obvious reasons
    now they even want to have their own quds day
    to date ….none of the folk …..including voc who used to hang on every sentence fatwa etc of sh yusuf qaradawi ….is now silent after the saudis opened an embassy in israel….and sh qaradawi declared its haraam to sideline etc the zionist israeli entity…..

  3. P.S. A humble suggestion – instead of creating more Pallywood propaganda, perhaps ask yourselves why you had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of social media?

  4. Your misinformed ideologies are the root cause of the hatred in the world. You know no truth. You only say lies, spread those lies to invite the hatred people have inside. If you don't live there. Never visited. Never read history or any other book, you cannot comment. Palestinians are governed by their own people. Their leaders are those that keep them down. Keep them poor. Why are there nearly 2000 millionaires in gaza, if they are so poor? A very silly judgment to say they don't have money. When they do. Or their leaders do. The ones who aren't even born in the region. And the ones who live in other countries. Nicely done.

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