PCR calls for International volunteers with media skills
A project to establish a media center that combines the efforts and skils of both Palestinian reporters and
International reporters or volunteers with media skills is running.
We are calling for international volunteers with media skills to come and join the effort. skills needed are mostly
(right now) in english editing and to act as international media correspondents.
Other skills in all media fields will be required very soon.
So far the team has put together a news website. you can access it through http://www.imemc.org
Even while still under construction and can have few typos it can provide a fair daily coverage of events in Palestine
with some articles and analyisis.
People interested please write to mailto:pcr@p-ol.com
Ghassan Andoni
IMEMC Mission Statement In an attempt to balance the scales of representation and to bring the public a clearer picture
of the realities in the region, a group of international and Palestinian journalists have joined together to create a
new media center that will function as a cross roads of information for both the public and for professional
journalists. The International Middle East Media Center has started a basic article print service and news wire on the
internet, offering articles from 45 journalists stationed throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and commentary from
editors and political analysts well versed in the history of the region.
The International Middle East Media Center's main objective is to provide both the public, and professional
international journalists, with accurate, well investigated information regarding the current crisis in Palestine (the
West Bank and Gaza Strip by 1967 boarders). After an extensive analysis of the methods of media operation in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, our team determined that news coming from international and local agencies was lacking on multiple
levels, from source interviews to actual research and publication. The dramatic importance this region plays in
international affairs makes accurate information about the region an absolute necessity. People in the international
community need this information in order to generate realistic opinions regarding necessary courses of action toward
peaceful settlement of the conflict.
To further accomplish its goal, IMEMC seeks to provide a service to international journalists as a clearinghouse of
information, both by way of daily articles, and by way of establishing relationships with journalists working in the
region, and with international bureaus working outside the region. In our beginning stages, our news production will be
limited to print sources. As we expand, however, IMEMC seeks to generate news services for international audiences and
journalists in the field of TV and radio broadcast as well. Over time IMEMC will initiate a "stringer" service,
providing TV and radio stations with short interviews and small clips of video and audio from local events where
international media may not have been present.
Generally speaking, IMEMC seeks to focus not only on the day to day problems presented by military action, but on the
general effects of occupation. Issues such as the treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, Chronic Traumatic Stress
Syndrome caused by generalized military action in civilian areas, water rights and water quality, and ecological
disasters caused by lack of resources and waste facilities play a large role in every day life for most Palestinians and
underscore the problems inherent in the current peace process, yet these issues are terribly under-represented in
international media. Bringing these issues to light and putting them before international public opinion will help
facilitate more equitable decisions regarding international diplomacy and action within the region.
The larger goal of the Middle East Media Center project is to always produce fair and accurate reporting. The nature of
this project is to attempt to balance scales of reporting internationally by effectively reporting on Palestinian issues
that are largely neglected by the international media. Maintaining balance in a macro perspective can only be attained
by radically shifting the focus of international media, and, as regards the Middle East, this can only be done with
consistent focus on Palestinian issues.