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Abbas now controls Palestinian media

Wednesday February 15th 2006, 3:49 pm
Filed under: Newspapers

In an attempt to prevent Hamas from taking control over the media, the Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday decided to place the PA’s radio and television stations under his jurisdiction, PA officials in Ramallah said. The decision, which comes days before the new Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council is sworn in, drew sharp criticism from Hamas leaders, who called it ‘illegal.’ The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, a body that consists of the official Voice of Palestine Radio and TV, has always functioned as a department inside the PA Information Ministry. According to the officials, the decision came in the form of a ‘presidential decree.’ The decree means that Abbas and his office, not the Information Ministry, will now be directly in charge of the electronic media. The decision also affects the PLO’s official news agency, Wafa, which will now report directly to Abbas’s office. (The Jerusalem Post,February 15, 2006)

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