Workshop in Gaza Strip on “Freedom of opinion and expression and media freedoms from a media and legal perspective”

The Institute of Law at BZU - Gaza in collaboration with the Centre for Development and Media Freedoms "MADA" and the Faculty of Law at Al Azhar University, organized on 1st March 2011, a workshop on " Freedom of opinion and expression and media freedoms from a media and legal perspective." The workshop was funded by the UNESCO, and was attended by a crowd of students of the Faculty of Law at Al Azhar University and those concerned..

At the beginning of the workshop,  the Institute's coordinator, Ms. Lena Tunisy, emphasized the importance of the workshop, since it combines media with law, pointing to the importance of cooperation with the Faculty of Law at Al Azhar University, which aims to educate students about the legal and societal issues.

The Journalist Adel Zanoun talked about the concept of media and journalist's ethics, while the Ex- General Manager of Press and Publications at the  Ministry of Media, Mr. Tawfiq Abu Shomar, addressed the Press and Publications Law, stating that the media was interested in the dissemination of news and then turned to writing the news, and is now making the event. He explained that  media is  mainly based on freedom of opinion and expression.

In his intervention, the Dean of the Faculty of Law at Al-Azhar University, Dr. Abdel-Rahman Abu-Nasr, addressed the offenses against journalists in the Penal Code in force in Gaza Strip. He pointed out that the Penal Code embodies the philosophy of the society as a whole, and that the law in force in Gaza Strip differs from the law in force in the West Bank, and this requires the unification of laws.

The workshop was followed by a panel discussion in which students and participants  made significant intervention, which reflected their awareness and interest in the subject,  specifically the role of media in triggering revolutions. and to what extent the news channels serve such revolutions.