By Xinhua,
Gaza : A number of Palestinian journalists urged rival factions of Hamas and Fatah to stop incitement and libel campaigns on the media, a journalist said on Tuesday. “The sponsors of a initiative of Hamas-Fatah media accordance hope the two movements carry out the plan in order to lift restrictions and complications on local media and journalists,” said Mohammed Daraghme, a West Bank-based journalist. He said the initiative, which was handed over to exiled Hamas’ politburo chief Khaled Mashaal when some of the journalists visited Damascus to cover the Arab League’s summit last month,will be announced soon.
The initiative is made up of three points: lifting the ban on the newspapers in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-dominated West Bank, allowing Hamas’ and the Palestinian National Authority’s (PNA) televisions and radios to broadcast and ending the mutual incitement, according to Daraghme.
Palestinian security forces, loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, ban two Hamas’ newspapers from being printed or distributed in West Bank. They also pursue employees of Hamas’ al-Aqsa satellite channel in West Bank.
The banning of Hamas media in West Bank came after Hamas took over Gaza Strip by force and routed pro-Abbas forces in June 2007. On the other hand, a Hamas court has banned a Ramallah-basedpro-Fatah daily from being distributed in the Gaza Strip, saying the decision was made after the al-Ayaam daily published a carton that Hamas saw as an incitement against the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) where the Islamic movement enjoys the majority.
The PNA’s satellite channel, Palestine TV, stopped working in Gaza since June 2007.