The general assembly of the "Media Network- for integrity and
transparency", held its meeting at AMAN’s premises on
15/4/2008. The meeting was also attended
by AMAN’s executive director, Ms. Ghada Zughayer, and Rami Mousa,
Coordinator of the Resource center. The
meeting resulted in forming a steering committee (SC) that will take
on the task of preparing for an election to select the coordinating
committee for the network. This action comes in the context of the
network’s efforts to organize and empower the role of the network in
promoting values of integrity and transparency within the
Palestinian society. The SC tasks also included with-holding
acceptance of new members at this time until the elections are over.
The elections are planned for Saturday, April 26, 2008. It is worthy
to note that the number of members consists of 54 journalists and
media professionals. The meeting also included drafting of the
by-laws for the network in addition to reviewing the two year plan.
During her opening speech, Mrs. Al Zughayer emphasized the important
role of the media in the fight against corruption in Palestine. She
said that the media is the best source for monitoring and observing
the performance of public institutions, and the way by which these
institutions use or abuse public funds. In this regard, she
mentioned that AMAN has made tremendous achievements, one of which
is the formation of this media network.
In addition, Mrs. Zughaier, expressed her confidence in the
network’s ability to promote professionalism and enhancement of the
quality of media coverage in general, and especially investigative
reporting which highlights misuse of public funds. Mrs. Zughayer
assured the members of AMAN’s support for the network, be it
technical, or moral, and informed them of AMAN’s role as a
secretariat for the network, especially during the first few years
of the network's establishment.
Mr. Montasr Hamdan, general coordinator of the network, specified
that the two-year plan includes activities on several levels: first,
conducting training courses for journalists and media professionals
that aim at enhancing related skills, especially in investigative
reporting. Secondly, members of the network aim to work with media
institutions to improve and develop its administrative skills and
methods of reporting in addition to prompting them to establish
investigative departments. Finally, the network will work to
establish coalitions with institutions and parliament members for
the purpose of exposing and publishing the various corruption
practices that exist. The network will insure that this will be done
in a professional and objective manner.
The meeting concluded in
agreement that the elected coordination committee will carry out the
above mentioned two-year plan.
