Good news and bad news from Palestinian media. First the good news: the Fatah-dominated press hounds Hamas at every turn, giving Palestinians a chance to see real criticism of their government. The bad news is that the Fatah-dominated press clearly has it’s own axe to grind. AP reports:
“The Palestinian media is clearly biased against Hamas,” complained Mahmoud Ramahi of Hamas, secretary-general of the Palestinian parliament. “What they are doing is not monitoring or criticizing. What they are doing is inciting against Hamas, in the interest of Fatah.”
Pro-Fatah journalists say they are giving equal treatment to all politicians and that Hamas is simply frustrated because it cannot control the media….
Hamas has started trying to exert more influence over local media. The Hamas information minister, Youssef Rizka, recently urged Palestinian journalists not to use what he said were Western terms, such as terrorism, to describe Palestinian attacks against Israel.
Despite the problems, the situation is arguably an improvement from the days when Yasser Arafat repressed media criticism of his regime.
