The Palestinian Media: An Obedient Servant or a Vanguard of Democracy? (original) (raw)

Palestinian media landscape: Experiences, narratives, and agendas of journalists under restrictions

The Communication Review, 2018

This study aims to increase our understanding of the dynamics of the Palestinian media and the conditions and circumstances in which they work, including both the conflict with Israel and the internal political strife within Palestinian society. It is based on the use of qualitative research methods and was conducted in two stages. First, we performed a mapping of Palestinian media outlets. Data on these Palestinian media outlets were collected online from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Information website, the Gaza-based Hamas government's Ministry of Information website, and statements published by Palestinian media outlets on their websites describing their affiliation and ownership. Second, to gain a more in-depth understanding of the dynamics and experience of practicing journalism in a situation of asymmetrical conflict, semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 professional local Palestinian journalists working for local media outlets in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Through this study we aim to learn more about how groups shape and express their narratives and agendas through the media when restricted by the conditions, pressures, and limitations of asymmetrical conflict.

The limits of dissent: Palestinian media in a Jewish ethnocracy

Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, 2011

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License Newcastle University ePrints-eprint.ncl.ac.uk McGahern U. The limits of dissent: Palestinian media in a Jewish ethnocracy.

Amal Jamal The Palestinian Media An Obedient Servant or a Vanguard of Democracy

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Palestine: Resilient Media Practices for National Liberation

Arab Media Systems, 2021

This chapter provides an overview of Palestinian media practices in historic Palestine and in the diaspora. Since the printing press arrived in the region, the Palestinian people have used media for national liberation and self-determination. However, the Israeli regime’s ongoing occupation and displacement of the Palestinian people produces major challenges for the development and sustainability of the media system in Palestine.

Journalism as Resistance: Contextualizing Media Culture in the Gaza Strip

2014

Walking into the office of the Al-Resalah media organization in Gaza City, few can miss the daunting image of Hamas (H • arakat al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmiyyah or The Islamic Resistance Movement) Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh. While this media outlet's affiliation to the Islamic Resistance is rarely in doubt, the image is a reminder that since 2006 Hamas has ensured its gradual omnipresence in almost all facets of public life in this Palestinian territory. But Al-Resalah is just one of several Gaza-based news outlets that are either owned by or affiliated with the ruling Islamist party. Be it Al-Aqsa TV, Alray, Felesteen, or Safa, they all represent a robust media infrastructure directly influenced by Hamas. Then the assumption that such institutions are direct beneficiaries of the Islamic Resistance's political project has also left them susceptible to the repercussions of the same. In 2010 the U.S. Department of Treasury designated Al-Aqsa TV a Special Designated Global Terrorist entity for being "financed and controlled by Hamas" (US Department of Treasury, 2010). During hostilities, Israel has ritually deemed Hamas-controlled media organizations as mere manifestations of the "terrorist military" infrastructure and therefore legitimate military targets (Barzak, 2012). That said, while it would be accurate to deem such media outlets, as a whole, biased, and politically influenced by the ruling Islamists in the Gaza Strip, their continued prevalence and prominence within the newsmedia landscape of the occupied Palestinian territories compel one to transcend beyond such simplistic categorizations. It is not unusual to find media organizations in politically strained environments transgressing the values of objectivity and professionalism that are supposed to inform journalism and journalistic credibility. But while it may be self-evident what journalism in such an environment is not, few scholars have explored how journalism manifests itself in such a politically distraught environment. That is to ask, what is journalism under such trying conditions? Exploring the character of Hamas-led media culture, this article begins by asserting the primacy of bringing back the "context"-instead of perceived universalistic journalistic values-in any conversation on journalism in the atypical sociopolitical conditions of the occupied Palestinian territories. Then it concludes 1 that the culture of journalism in the Gaza Strip often transcends specific professional affiliations (pro-Hamas or otherwise) and reflects a general ideological-moral commitment to making the story of a suffering Palestinian populace under occupation, accessible to the outside world.

Censorship and Freedom of the Press Under Changing Political Regimes: Palestinian Media from Israeli Occupation to the Palestinian Authority

International Communication Gazette, 2003

This article examines the Palestinian media in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in order to understand how censorship functions in an environment of changing political realities and the impact of censorship on matters related to freedom of the press. These questions are examined both in relation to the period of Palestinian self-governance under the Palestinian Authority (PA), and under the period of Israeli military (administrative) rule. Primary research questions include: How and to what degree have the Palestinian media changed under the two different systems of rule?

Post-Zionist Critique on Israel and the Palestinians Part III: Popular Culture

Journal of Palestine Studies, 1997

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