Media Development Center Organizes Assessment Session on Civil Defense Snow Coverage

On January 24, 2015, the Birzeit University Media Development Center organized an assessment session to review media performance in covering the Civil Defense Department during winter storm “Huda” that struck Palestine in early January.

The center’s follow-up and evaluation officer Emad Al-Asfar emphasized the importance of cooperation and communication between the center and official Palestinian institutions, especially the civil defense department, which is tasked with protecting the public.

Loay Bani Odeh from the Civil Defense Public Relations Office presented a preliminary assessment of civil defense work carried out during the snowstorm. He said that there were 2,542 direct interventions carried out by his team in Ramallah.

Bani Odeh also talked about failings that impacted the performance of the civil defense staff, most importantly the misleading role played by amateur weather forecasters, the state of confusion resulting from citizens’ frantic shopping behavior, citizens’ disobedience of civil defense instructions regarding the use of private vehicles, poor infrastructure, and weakness in the civil defense unit’s capabilities, included limited numbers of staff members.