Palestine Think Tank

Khalil Bendib
Telling the truth can be dangerous business.
Honest and popular don't go hand in hand.
- Lyle Rogers and Chuck "The Hawk" Clarke, Ishtar (1987)
Last Tuesday, prominent Israeli journalist Amira Hass was arrested by Israeli authorities upon entering Israel from Gaza. Hass, a correspondent for the daily Ha'aretz, had been living and working in Gaza [...]

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
Edward R Murrow (1908-1965), American Broadcast Newsman

If you think there is freedom of the press in the United States, I tell there is no freedom of the press… They come out with the cheap shot. The press should be ashamed of itself. They should come to both sides of the issue and hear both sides and let the American people make [...]

We owe to democracy, at least in part, the regime of discussion win which we live; we owe it to the principal modern liberties: those of thought, press and association. And the regime of free discussion is the only one which permits the ruling class to renew itself…which eliminates that class quasi-automatically when it no [...]

مسؤولة مكتب الحريات الصحفية / شبكة صحفيين في المهجر البريطانية
عندما التقيت بالسيد نقيب الصحفيين الفلسطينيين نعيم الطوباسي في مؤتمر اتحاد نقابات الصحفيين البريطانيين قبل حوالي شهر ونصف في إيرلندا، فرحت واستبشرت خيراً. خصوصاً بعد أن أعلن على الملأ وعلى المنصة دعمه الكامل للحريات الصحفية، وإنصاف زملاء المهنة. وعندما لوّح بالكوفية إلى أن التقطت كل كاميرا [...]

On the second of May 2008 the Frontline Club in London supported the Press Freedom Network in UK under the patronage of the National Commission for the UNESCO and invited an array of journalists and media professionals from all over the country to vote on the motion ‘New Media is Killing Journalism’.
This initiative was held [...]

The freedom to share one’s insights and judgments verbally or in writing is, just like the freedom to think, a holy and inalienable right of humanity that, as a universal human right, is above all the rights of princes.
Carl Friedrich Bahrdt (1740-1792) On Freedom of the Press and its Limits, 1787.

Today marks the celebration of International Day of Press Freedom. Like many celebrations that we are called to recognise, rather than feel joy at how wonderful things are, we are reminded of just how much goes haywire. Reporters Without Borders lists those killed in 2007. They write that there has been: 129 journalists, 7 media [...]