MADA Center and the Foundation For the Future Renew their Cooperation for the Legal Aid Program for Journalists
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- Published on Friday, 03 February 2012 23:50
PNN
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) and the Foundation For the Future (FFF) in Amman signed a cooperation agreement for the continuation of their joint work in the legal assistance program for journalists, which has been funded by Foundation For the Future since May 2010.
The agreement was signed by Foundation for the Future President Ms. Nabila Hamza and the chairman of MADA Center Dr. Ghazi Hanania.
Through this program MADA will continue to provide free legal consultations and assistance to journalists and media institutions, defending them in the courts if necessary in cases relating to freedom of opinion and expression. MADA will also launch awareness campaigns within Palestine in general, and for journalists and media students in particular, on the media laws in Palestine and the importance of freedom of opinion and expression in social development, in addition to other related activities.
Ms. Nabila Hamza expressed her deep pleasure at the continuation of this cooperation with MADA center, which provides technical and legal assistance and works towards ensuring the highest levels of media freedoms for journalists within legal frameworks, which is in line with Foundation For the Future's goals to support freedom of expression, facilitate access to information and foster a democratic environment that adopts the basic principles of human rights. Hamza added that the Foundation was established in 2005 to support initiatives of civil society institutions that provide an effective contribution towards establishing democracy in the Middle East and North Africa, with a principle focus on the principles of human rights and awareness in the community.
MADA General Director Mousa Rimawi thanked Foundation For the Future for their ongoing support of the legal aid program, which is one of the most important programs implemented by the Center, and complements its work in monitoring and documenting violations and enhancing freedom of expression in Palestinian society. Rimawi explained that MADA has contributed to the release of a number of journalists and provided 68 legal consultations for forty-five journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the past year and a half alone. MADA has also held eleven workshops attended by 194 journalists and media workers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to issuing a legal guide for journalists containing all the relevent legal materials relating to their work in the occupied Palestinian territories, which it the first of its kind in the area.
